


I Finally Found What I'd Been Missing, It's This

by ToriWritesStories



Series: I Could Get Used To This [2]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, CEO Cheryl, Cheryl speak French and Italian, Drama, F/F, Fluff, Long-Distance Relationship, Photographer Toni, Sequel to travel fic, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:35:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 26,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26825266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToriWritesStories/pseuds/ToriWritesStories
Summary: After two weeks of traveling together, Toni and Cheryl aren't in Italy or Greece anymore, they are in the places they call home, respectively, Los Angeles and New York City. Distance or not, they've decided to try this relationship.In this 5-part mini-sequel to the travel fic ("It Ain't Always Perfect, But With You, It Is"), join me on a little journey through Choni's relationship after traveling together.
Relationships: Cheryl Blossom/Toni Topaz, Veronica Lodge/Sweet Pea
Series: I Could Get Used To This [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1876078
Comments: 79
Kudos: 191





	1. Ti amo, Je t'aime, I love you

**Author's Note:**

> STOP! Have you read "It Ain't Always Perfect, But With You, It Is" ?? If your answer is NO, please read that FIRST! This story isn't meant to be read on its own!  
> -  
> Happy Sunday lovelies! We are back with travel fic Choni, but no longer in the travel fic!
> 
> I want to clarify - yes this story is about Choni's relationship after deciding to go long distance, but there won't be much angst in this story. More of a short, fun, fluffy, sometimes smutty epilogue to follow the travel fic.
> 
> I appreciated so so much all of the love on the first story of this series. I really hope you guys will love this mini-sequel as well <3 Feel free to leave any comments and hit me up on Twitter @BrittzandTana if you'd like <3 Enjoy!

“Toni, you are being absolutely insufferable,” Veronica grumbled, as Toni perfected the wings of her eyeliner, “this really isn’t that big of a deal. You’ve seen Cheryl at least four times in the last five months.”

“Doesn’t mean that I don’t want to look hot for her,” Toni insisted. “Also, I am so excited for you to meet Cheryl’s friends. You’re going to love them; they are so _your_ type of people.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Veronica demanded. “Our friends are my type of people. Just because they’re all rich and so am I doesn’t mean I’m going to suddenly be besties with them.”

“That is obviously not what I meant.” Toni rolled her eyes. “I’m just saying, you’re going to get along with them, they’re a lot of fun.”

“Well, that’s valid, I’m fun,” Veronica joked. “Girl, you have literally never taken this long to do your makeup!”

“I’m done,” Toni exclaimed, closing her eyeliner and blinking a few times to make sure it wouldn’t mess up. “See? All done.”

“I know the real reason she’s getting extra dolled up,” Sweet Pea said, suddenly appearing in the doorway of Veronica’s bedroom—where Toni and Veronica had been getting ready.

Toni blushed as Veronica asked, “Oh? What’s that?”

“She hasn’t let Cheryl see what she looks like with her new hair color, so Cheryl’s been deprived of looking at Toni for like, four days.”

Veronica lifted an eyebrow at Toni. “You told him that, but not me?”

“Yeah, because I knew you would think it’s stupid!”

“It is,” Veronica insisted, “but also, I bet you guys will have great sex afterward, so I guess I see the appeal.”

Toni smirked, looking at herself in the mirror. Her hair was no longer magenta, but a bold purple. She’d told Cheryl she was changing it, but she hadn’t told her the color she was changing to and had refused to send any pictures or let Cheryl see her during any video calls. The redhead was getting impatient, and Toni was pretty confident that she would be driving Cheryl crazy tonight. Especially since they weren’t going to get to be alone until late tonight.

The bar that Toni worked had to get some plumbing replaced, so she was out of work for the weekend. Thus, she and Cheryl had decided to take advantage of the situation. Cheryl’s friends—Katy, Reed, Josie, Kevin, and Moose—were all coming with Cheryl to Los Angeles for the weekend. The five of them had rented a large Airbnb to share for the weekend, but, of course, Cheryl should be staying with Toni.

“Oh, and Sweets,” Toni said, turning around to look at her friend, “you and Fangs better make conversation with Katy’s boyfriend Reed, because he seems lowkey standoffish, and you guys can be all dude-bro with him.”

Sweet Pea rolled his eyes. “Find, guess I’ll channel my inner dude-bro, whatever the fuck that means.”

“I assume it means something similar to the way you act when you play that new game you got last week,” Veronica muttered, rolling her eyes.

“Oh, come on, I apologized for waking you up that night, and I haven’t done that again!”

“Babe, you should know that I’m getting this close to giving you a video game curfew.”

Toni smirked, and her phone buzzed from where it was resting on Veronica’s vanity. She glanced over at it and saw that it was from her girlfriend.

**Cheryl – We have just landed, and everyone is already complaining about the heat. Especially Moose—he has apparently never left New York.**

**Toni – That’s how I felt when I first moved here! Glad you guys landed safely! We’re about to leave for the restaurant.**

**Cheryl – Great. Can’t wait to see you, babe.**

“They landed,” Toni said to her best friends, “come on, let’s get to the restaurant. The reservation is under my name, so we should try and get there first.”

“I’ve been literally ready to go for ages,” Veronica insisted, “so yes, let’s. Also, I can’t believe there’s a reservation made under your name. Totally new vibe for you, T.”

“Well, you won’t feel that way when you hear that I will not be paying for any of it,” Toni said with a chuckle.

“Yeah, that does make it more believable.”

The three of them left Veronica and Sweet Pea’s apartment and loaded up into their car, heading for the steakhouse they had made a reservation for twelve. The party consisted of Cheryl, Toni, Veronica, Sweet Pea, Katy, Reed, Josie, Kevin, Moose, Fangs, Joaquin, Betty, and Jughead. Jughead and Betty had started “going steady,” as Betty had weirdly described it, a few months ago, and Cheryl’s friends were all pretty sure that Kevin and Moose were both starting to push past their “no dating, just sex” situation. Fangs and Joaquin had ended their occasional hooking up but were still close friends. Not a whole lot had changed in five months.

They got to the restaurant first, but only barely, because they saw Betty and Jughead walking up as the hostess was collecting all of the menus.

“Hey, B! Hey, Jug,” Veronica greeted. “Haven’t seen you guys in a couple weeks. How are things?”

“Pretty good,” Jughead answered with a nod.

“Yeah, and I, like Toni, am kind of happy to have the weekend off.”

“Oh, I’m more than kind of happy, Betty,” Toni said with a chuckle, “I’m thrilled. Working full time during the week, taking my last two classes this semester, and working two to three nights during the weekends… it’s been kicking my fucking ass.”

“Hey, at least you’re almost done,” Sweet Pea said, “I’ve still got two more semesters to go.”

“Yeah well, you didn’t just go part time, you took like, a gap year and have been part time ever since.”

“Full time school is hard and expensive, Tiny.”

“No trust me, I know, I’m just saying.”

“If you’ll follow me?” the hostess asked with a smile, and Toni nodded. The woman guided the six of them to the huge table they would all be sharing this evening. Toni sat in the middle of one side, and Veronica and Sweet Pea sat across from her, Betty next to Veronica, and Jughead by her.

“So,” Betty said, “anything we need to know about Cheryl’s friends before we meet them?”

“Oh—yeah, Kevin and Moose are probably dating, but they’re also probably going to say they’re still just hooking up. It’s a whole thing, don’t push them about it. Katy and Reed have been dating long term. Um… I don’t think there’s anything really necessary to note besides that.”

Toni heard her girlfriend before she could see her—she heard multiple sets of heels clicking off in the direction of the entrance of the restaurant, and the loud, recognizable voice of Josie McCoy say, “Ooh damn, this place is nice!”

Toni heard Cheryl’s voice say tut, “Josie!” Followed by something quieter that Toni couldn’t really hear. She felt herself holding her breath as she tousled her purple hair a little.

“Toni Topaz getting nervous to see her girlfriend,” Veronica teased, “adorable.”

Suddenly, Cheryl and her friends came into view from the front of the restaurant. They were all empty handed, presumably having stopped at the Airbnb, aside from Cheryl, who was casually pulling a suitcase with her.

Immediately, Josie was exclaiming, “Damn, Toni, that hair! Cher, you did _not_ mention her new hair!”

Toni grinned, standing up to greet them. “She didn’t get to see it,” Toni admitted, glancing at Cheryl’s eyes, which were staring at her—soaking all of her in.

Toni loved it when Cheryl looked at her like that.

“Oh my god, is that why Cheryl has been miserable to be around the past few days?” Katy demanded. “Toni, you owe me big time for dealing with grumpy Cheryl at work.”

“Hey Katy,” Toni returned with a laugh, reaching for her girlfriend’s hand and pulling her in for a kiss.

Cheryl kissed her back firmly, before moving her lips to her ear. “You owe me way more than you owe her.” Toni just smirked and forced her attention back on the situation in front of her.

“Guys, these are my friends Veronica, Sweet Pea, Betty, and Jughead. And this is Josie, Katy, Reed, Kevin, and Moose.”

Everyone broke out into greetings and pleasantries all at once after Toni gave the introductions, and then started to figure out where everyone should sit. Toni sat down in her seat and pulled Cheryl into the seat next to her. Just as they’d found their seats, Fangs and Joaquin were approaching the table.

“Oh shit, we’re late?” Fangs asked.

Toni rolled her eyes. “Everyone, this is Fangs and Joaquin. Guys, this is Josie, Katy, Reed, Kevin, and Moose.”

“Nice to meet you guys,” Fangs said with a toothy grin, and Joaquin gave a nod as a greeting as well. They sat down in the last available seats, and then a waitress appeared to take their drink orders. Cheryl and Toni both ordered wine—they had already decided that they would call an Uber or Lyft to take them back to Toni’s apartment at the end of the night—and so did most of the group.

“So, Toni, what made you go with purple?” Josie asked curiously, after the waitress left to go get their drinks.

“I’ve pretty much done every shade of pink I could ever find, so I figured it was time to switch things up a little,” Toni admitted.

“Trust me,” Veronica said, “when she says every shade of pink, she is not joking. We once went to CVS and literally bought every shade of pink or red we could find, and we even tried mixing some of them?”

“Keep in mind, that happened in like, our first year of college,” Toni defended herself.

“You guys went, or still go, to USC, right?” Katy asked, looking at Toni and her friends.

“We did,” Veronica answered, gesturing between her, Sweet Pea, and Toni.

“Yeah, I went to community college here,” Fangs said with a chuckle, “and I sorta didn’t finish, so.”

“I feel you, man,” Moose said, “the only reason I pushed through college was because, in my last year, I had a job offer, and if I didn’t finish school, I was going to have to go through even more effort for a crappier job.”

“What do you do, Moose, I don’t think I’ve ever asked?” Toni wondered, tilting her head.

“I do civil engineering,” he answered, “although, it’s totally not as technical or impressive as it sounds.”

“He helps design bridges,” Kevin added for clarification, before adding, sarcastically, “So very interesting.”

Veronica chuckled. “Says the one who works as his friend’s personal assistant.”

“Okay, I know it sounds weird,” Kevin exclaimed in defense, “but as Cheryl’s assistant, I literally get to travel the whole world, okay? I’m not complaining.”

Cheryl shook her head. “Is this a good excuse to finally fire Kevin after all of the embarrassing things he said about me and Toni in Europe?” she asked Josie, who smirked and shook her head.

“Now, now, Cheryl, it’s not Kevin’s fault that you and Toni were sappy as hell in Europe.”

“Toni never tells us the sappy details!” Betty exclaimed. “I want to hear them!”

“I mean, to be fair, I didn’t see them all that much,” Kevin said, in his defense, “so I don’t actually know what they were like the whole time. I do know that Cheryl was absolutely infatuated after they talked the first night, because she called me at like, close to midnight, telling me that she gave a beautiful woman named Toni Topaz her business card, and that if she called—since it would be to my work phone—to immediately give her Cheryl’s personal phone number and not ask any questions.”

Cheryl’s cheeks were read, and Toni squeezed her hand and cooed, “Aww, I never heard about that.”

“Kevin, your job is seriously hanging by a thread here.”

“Speaking of jobs, what do you all do?” Katy asked, looking around the table.

Everyone started sharing what they did for a living, and their glasses of wine, along with waters, were brought out. At some point, they all ordered their meals, and conversation switched away from jobs and to more fun topics. Veronica, Toni, Sweet Pea, and Fangs talked about moving from New York to LA, and all of the couples got a chance to mention how long they’d been dating. Everyone at the table was surprised to hear Kevin say that he and Moose had been _dating_ for a couple months, but nobody admitted it.

Their dinners came out, but even as they all ate, conversation hardly dwindled. The two groups meshed easily, which Toni was not surprised about. She knew that if she got along with Cheryl’s friends so well, then they would get along with her friends, too.

“Tomorrow night, we should all go clubbing,” Josie suggested excitedly at some point. “What’s a fun place to go?”

“I’m not quite sure that the clubbing scene we’re used to here is anything like the clubbing experience I was in New York for,” Toni admitted with a chuckle.

“We don’t need anything fancy,” Katy insisted. “Just drinks and music and dancing.”

“What about that place we went to last month?” Cheryl asked. “The one you, Veronica, and Betty took me to.”

“Oh, that place was a lot of fun,” Veronica agreed, “we should totally go tomorrow, yes!”

“I’m down,” Toni agreed, “after the week I’ve had, I really need to let loose.”

“Oh my god,” Cheryl said, “I totally forgot to ask how your midterm yesterday evening went.”

“It was okay,” Toni answered with a shrug. She’d had both of her midterms this week, on top of work, so it had been a stressful week. “Glad it’s over, though. And I’m glad it marks being halfway done with my last two classes of my whole ass degree.”

“Oh, Toni! That reminds me!” Katy exclaimed. “You need to send all of us your graduation date. We already decided we want to come down and party with you.”

Toni laughed shyly. “Oh, you guys don’t have to do that.”

“No seriously,” Josie insisted, “it’s been a while since any of us got to celebrate a graduation, and we wanna be there to support you.”

“Aww,” Veronica cooed, “you’ll have all of us there in the stands, screaming your name!”

Toni rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’ll send you the date.”

“Yay!” Katy exclaimed.

Cheryl leaned closer to Toni and asked quietly, “If you really don’t want them to come, I can talk to them.”

“No, I don’t care, they should come,” Toni insisted. “Just… I don’t know. It’s like, my friends are all either in school, or graduated like, a year or two ago. But you and your friends are like, years out of school, so I just feel like it’s lame.”

Cheryl lifted her hand to Toni’s purple hair, running her fingers through it. “It’s not lame, Toni. And it’s really not your fault that you’re younger than me and my friends. They really like you, and they just want to support you. Just like I do.” Cheryl’s hand pushed some of Toni’s hair behind her ear.

Toni loved it when Cheryl played with her hair.

“Hey, you two,” Sweet Pea said teasingly, getting Toni and Cheryl’s attention all of the sudden, “you guys want some dessert, or what?” Their waitress was waiting patiently for the table to order any desserts.

They all decided to pass, all feeling pretty full of their dinners, and then decided to call it a night. They made loose plans for when they would meet up the next day, and then all split off their separate ways. Cheryl called a Lyft for her and Toni, and as soon as they got back to Toni’s apartment, Cheryl pulled her suitcase into her bedroom and let out a happy sigh.

“I am so glad you don’t have to work this weekend,” she breathed out.

“Same, babe,” Toni agreed, locking her front door and then heading toward her bedroom. “It’ll be nice to just get to relax with you—and all of our friends—instead.”

“Yes,” Cheryl agreed. She turned to face Toni. “So, your hair is purple.”

“Mmhmm. What do you think?” Toni asked, tousling it a little. “Looks good, right?”

“It is absolutely gorgeous,” Cheryl answered, “and incredibly sexy. As good as it looks, though, I cannot believe you didn’t let me see your face for _four days_. You seriously owe me.”

“Mm. And how should I pay you what I owe?” Toni asked, leaning against her bedroom doorframe.

Cheryl tilted her head. “Hmm… I may be able to think of a way or two… you’re going to have to come closer to do it.” Toni smirked, stalking closer to her girlfriend and stopping about a foot in front of her. Cheryl reached for Toni’s hips and pulled her up to her forcefully, taking Toni’s breath away. “As hard as it was to wait to see your hair, I will admit that it does look absolutely amazing, TT.”

Toni grinned. “You’re making it way too easy to not feel bad about making you wait.” Cheryl quirked up an eyebrow, and Toni couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking. Suddenly, Cheryl’s hands were wrapping around to the back of Toni’s dress, slowly unzipping it, and Toni was holding her breath. A moment later, the dress was pooled around her feet, leaving Toni in just her purple bralette and matching panties.

“You coordinated your lingerie with your hair,” Cheryl stated.

“I thought you would like it.” Toni bit down on her lower lip.

“Mm.” Cheryl pressed the pads of her fingers into Toni’s lower back, and then rotated them so that Toni’s back was to the bed. “Why don’t you lay down, chérie?” Toni lifted an eyebrow, taking a slow step back toward the bed. “TT. Lay down.” Toni bit down harder on her lower lip as she obeyed the order.

Although Toni definitely knew that Cheryl liked to pleasure her—as much as she also loved to be topped—she hadn’t seen Cheryl get particularly aggressive before, and she had a feeling that tonight was going to be a bit different than normal.

As Toni laid back into her pillows, she watched Cheryl slowly strip off her clothing, until she was left in her burgundy, lacey lingerie set. Toni soaked in the view of Cheryl’s gorgeous body, her pale, creamy colored skin and her perfect curves. Sometimes she couldn’t believe that she had somehow been lucky enough to randomly find this woman in Rome.

“What are you staring at?” Cheryl husked. Toni opened her mouth to answer, but then Cheryl shushed her, getting on the bed and straddling her.

Without another word, Cheryl was suddenly planting her lips on Toni’s low abdomen, sucking harshly on the skin below her belly button. Toni moaned, her back arching as she felt desire shooting through her body. When Cheryl pulled her lips away, Toni didn’t have to look to know that she had a hickey there. After their last night together when Toni had gone to New York in May, Toni had learned that Cheryl absolutely loved giving her hickeys, and Toni loved receiving them. “Mm, baby,” Toni murmured, as Cheryl scooted down her body, gripping her panties and pulling them swiftly off of the smaller woman.

Cheryl forced Toni’s thighs apart and, without any other warning, pressed her mouth against Toni’s center, which was already embarrassingly wet and ready for her. Toni let out a loud gasp as she felt Cheryl licking through her folds and then pressing her tongue firmly into her clit.

“Fuck, Cheryl,” Toni gasped out, wrapping her leg around Cheryl’s body, trying to somehow get any more friction. She was waiting for Cheryl’s fingers to join her mouth, but it didn’t seem like Cheryl had any interest in moving them from where they were gripping Toni’s thighs.

Apparently, though, Toni didn’t need fingers inside of her to start to feel herself get close. Her breaths started to become more uneven and short, and her body itched for more touch. She grabbed her own boob and pinched her nipple through her bralette, feeling herself get so close.

“Oh god, Cher, baby, I’m so close—baby, don’t stop—” And just as Toni said that, Cheryl’s tongue froze, and she pulled directly away from Toni, licking her lips as she looked up at Toni. Toni let out a whimper, her center throbbing and begging for contact. “Baby,” Toni whined, “why?”

“Because, mon petit cheri,” Cheryl whispered, crawling up the bed so that her face was hovering just above Toni’s, “you didn’t let me see your beautiful face for _four days_ , and we just established that you owe me. So, I think you should make _me_ come.”

“Yeah, I could’ve done that before you got me so close,” Toni whined, her center practically dripping with desire.

“Mm. Well, I don’t think that complicates things too much, does it?” Cheryl brought their lips together, and Toni kissed her back, feeling so needy now. She wrapped her left arm around to Cheryl’s back, digging her short nails into her soft, pale skin, and dragged her right hand down the front of her girlfriend’s body. She paused over Chery’s lacey bra, fondling her boobs for a moment, and then her hand finished its journey down to Cheryl’s center. She could feel the warmth emanating from it before she even touched her, and when she did slide her fingers through Cheryl’s wetness, the redhead nearly collapsed on her in surprise.

“You’re so wet,” Toni whispered into Cheryl’s ear, as Cheryl rocked down onto Toni’s fingers. “You get so worked up from eating me out.” Cheryl just bit down on her lower lip, her eyebrows knit together, and her eyelids closed, as she tried to get friction with Toni’s fingers. Toni did her best to move her fingers adequately, but she was having trouble. She was tempted to flip them over, but her own center was still throbbing, and her legs felt a bit too sluggish. Then, another idea popped into her head. “Here baby, let’s try this.”

Cheryl opened her eyes, looking at her with slight curiosity as Toni relaxed down onto her pillow, and her hands found Cheryl’s waist. She guided Cheryl upward on the bed, so that her core was over Toni’s face. “Is this okay?” Cheryl asked quietly.

“Mmhmm, and for you?”

“Once you start touching me, it will be.”

Toni grinned, grabbing Cheryl’s thighs and pulling her center down to meet her lips and tongue. Cheryl instantly let out a moan, practically grinding down onto Toni’s face, and Toni felt the headboard of her bed shake—Cheryl was probably gripping it. She wished she could see what Cheryl looked like on top of her, but her imagination was more than enough to turn on her on even more, and as she ate out her girlfriend, she felt herself still feeling oh so close as well.

She slid two fingers inside of Cheryl as she mercilessly played her tongue against her clit, and Cheryl gasped, pressing down into Toni’s hand. “Oh fuck, Toni!” Cheryl gasped out. “Oh my—” Her words turned into another moan, and her hips were moving intensely as they tried to get deeper pulses from Toni’s fingers.

Toni squeezed her thighs together as she curled her fingers purposefully inside of her girlfriend, and, just as Toni intended, Cheryl came abruptly, letting out a loud cry before leaning all of her weight into the headboard. Toni tucked her chin down, sucking in a deep breath.

Cheryl’s breathing was slowing down a little, and she carefully got off of Toni, settling onto the mattress next to her. “Toni,” she breathed out, “that was—”

“So hot,” Toni finished for her, “and I am so close still, please can you make me come now?” Cheryl took in a long breath, before bringing her lips to Toni’s. Toni smiled into the kiss—she loved feeling Cheryl’s lips on hers.

When Cheryl lifted her face, she whispered, “Of course, I can, TT.” Her hand was sliding down in between Toni’s thighs, and she easily slid her fingers inside of her. Toni let out a gasp, her hips bucking as Cheryl pressed her thumb into Toni’s clit. Toni knew that she was close, but within twenty seconds, she was already about to come.

“Fuck, Cher—fuck!” Cheryl pressed deep inside of her as Toni hit her orgasm, moaning with pleasure. Cheryl’s fingers helped her ride it out, and then, when she was finally down from her high, Cheryl laid down next to her and pressed a soft kiss to Toni’s cheek.

They laid there in silence for a few moments, Cheryl’s fingers still inside of Toni. “I missed you,” Cheryl finally said.

“I always miss you,” Toni whispered in response. It was true—long distance had been hard, and Toni found herself missing Cheryl pretty much every day. There had been days where Toni went straight from work to campus, and stayed there until late at night, trying to stay distracted from the fact that Cheryl wouldn’t be free to text or call her—due to traveling, usually. There had been nights that Toni got off the phone with Cheryl and found herself staring up at her ceiling for twenty minutes, just letting herself feel upset that she couldn’t see her girlfriend every day. She’d found herself feeling jealous when hanging out with her best friends and had started spending a bit more time with her single friends, because sometimes it just hurt too much. But in these moments, when Cheryl was right here with her, Toni remembered that those moments were not forever.

Cheryl finally pulled her fingers out of Toni, carefully, as she whispered, “Your hair really is beautiful by the way. Just like the rest of you.”

“Thanks. You should totally dye yours to match mine.”

“Ha.”

Toni grinned, and felt Cheryl’s fingers suddenly playing with some of her hair. “I love it when you do that,” Toni whispered, her eyelids falling closed as she enjoyed the feeling.

“Hmm?”

“When you play with my hair.” Cheryl started pressing a bunch of soft kisses to Toni’s neck all of the sudden, and Toni’s heart skipped a beat.

There were another few seconds of silence, and then Cheryl said, “Is it too soon to talk about Christmas?”

“It’s almost the end of October,” Toni said.

“Does that mean yes, or no?”

“Mm. I’m gonna say no, let’s talk about Christmas.”

“What do you usually do for Christmas?”

“Usually a gift exchange at V and Sweets’ place. And we drink and eat a ton of food. That’s is. You?”

“Katy and Reed always go to one of their parents’ for actual Christmas Eve and Christmas day. So, we wait until the day after Boxing Day, and we do a big late Christmas party,” Cheryl answered.

“So how do you usually spend Christmas Eve?”

“I pretend Boxing Day is Christmas Eve.”

Toni laughed sadly, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend. “Well then, it sounds like we have a perfect plan.”

“Do we?”

“Yeah! You come here for Christmas Eve and Christmas day, and on Boxing Day, we’ll fly to NYC for your big party.”

“Mm. I guess that does work out pretty perfectly. Do you have that many days off?”

“Oh yeah,” Toni answered, “definitely.”

“Good.”

“So, it’s a date?”

“Sounds like at least four dates,” Cheryl teased.

“I’m excited.”

“Me too.”

Another few moments of silence. Toni felt her thoughts wandering, thinking about how excited she was to spend her first Christmas with Cheryl. She thought about last year’s Christmas—she and her ex had just started planning the trip to Italy, and Toni had wanted to include Florence, but Sara had been spending all day Christmas Eve trying to convince her that it was more worthwhile to spend all their time in one city. Somehow, Sara had escalated it into a fight, and although they had made up before they went to sleep that night, it had spoiled some of the Christmas experience for sure.

She knew it would be so easy for her or Cheryl to feel insecure in their relationship—considering that they were so far apart most of the time, and they both knew that they both got hit on occasionally. But they had trust between them, and other than getting possessive in a hot way, Cheryl had never gotten truly upset or jealous at something out of Toni’s control. It should have been a given in a relationship, but after Sara, Toni found herself sometimes wondering how long Cheryl would go before feeling the same way Sara did.

And then she would remind herself that Cheryl wasn’t Sara—no, she was so much more mature. Toni didn’t think she ever would’ve been able to do long distance with Sara, but with Cheryl, it was more than worth the effort.

“What are you thinking about, babe?”

“How much better our relationship is than my last one,” Toni admitted. “I started thinking about last Christmas.”

“Mm. Well, I don’t plan to randomly stop trusting you anytime soon,” Cheryl teased, “so I have a feeling it will continue to be better than your last one. At least, I hope so.”

Toni laughed a little. “Trust me, Cheryl, it will. I’ve never known anyone I could really communicate with as easily as I do with you.”

“Same.”

Toni let her eyelids fall closed again, enjoying the feeling of Cheryl’s fingers in her hair, and then the words slipped out without her permission, “I love you.” Cheryl’s fingers froze, and Toni’s eyes opened again. Ignoring the nervous flutter of her heart, she turned onto her side to look into Cheryl’s eyes.

Cheryl looked surprised, but not upset. “You do?” Cheryl asked, her eyes sparkling suddenly.

“Um, yeah,” Toni answered with a chuckle. “I do. Shouldn’t be that hard to believe.”

“It’s not,” Cheryl agreed. “Toni, I love you, too.”

Toni didn’t even try to fight her grin. “Wow, you didn’t even have to start off saying it in Italian, and then transition to French, to get to English.” Cheryl narrowed her eyes, and suddenly she was straddling Toni, her fingers dancing over her middle and sending Toni into a fit of laughter as she was tickled. “Oh my—Cheryl! I can’t—I can’t breathe!”

Cheryl’s hands froze, and she lifted an eyebrow at the purple haired girl. “Ti amo, Signora Topaz.” Cheryl said with a grin, before adding, “Je t'aime, Mademoiselle Topaz.” Her expression went completely soft as she ran her hand through Toni’s purple locks. “And I _love_ you, Toni.”

“I love you, Cheryl. In every language, even though I can’t speak them.”

Cheryl chuckled, shaking her head at Toni and then laying down next to her again, cuddling up close. “We should get cleaned up and ready for bed, TT.”

“Yeah, okay, just let me savor these post-sex cuddles a little longer.”

“Okay, baby.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”


	2. So Tell Me It's Worth It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toni graduates from college!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey friends! Happy Thursday! Sorry it's late, and probably not Thursday for most of you anymore, but I wasn't really feeling like updating today and then the motivation just hit me, so here I am!  
> Work and school kicked my ass this week, especially today. Had a twenty minute breakdown and had to reschedule my therapy that was supposed to be today lmao. I knew I had too many things to do so I didn't want to let myself play Among Us, instead I watched like an hour's worth of YouTubers playing it. Sigh. XD
> 
> Anyway! Enough about me! Enjoy this chapter friends! It's basically a "I don't get to walk for graduation in December so god damn it, Toni will at least!" chapter hahaha! xx

Toni was sprawled across her otherwise empty bed, alternating between staring at the ceiling and looking at the time on her phone. It was the tenth of December, and Cheryl was sitting in a cab right now, coming from LAX to Toni’s apartment. They hadn’t gotten to see each other since October, when the bar had been closed and Cheryl’s friends had come to visit with her.

In the time since then, Toni had finally turned twenty-four, and she had finished the last two classes she’d needed to finish before being able to graduate. Her graduation was tomorrow. On the plane to LA with Cheryl today had been Josie, Katy, and Kevin, all of whom had insisted that they come watch Toni walk across the stage.

Honestly, Toni couldn’t believe she was going to be doing it. After being in college for five and a half years, she was finally done. She had even let Veronica convince her to order fancy graduation announcement cards, and she’d sent them to Cheryl and her friends, all of her own friends, and even one to her dad. She hadn’t spoken to him since the end of her freshman year, because that had been the last year that she had been able to get financial aid due to her father’s income. She had called him to talk about some financial things, and he had been going through a much harder time than normal with drugs and everything, and they’d had a fight.

She had gone back and forth on whether or not to send the announcement to him, but she had ultimately decided that there wasn’t much harm in doing so. She was proud of herself, and she had received little support from her father in regard to school, and maybe she just wanted to prove to him that she’d gone and done it.

Despite having sent the announcement a month ago, though, she had yet to hear back.

Toni glanced at her phone again, seeing that five minutes had passed since the last time she’d looked, and then there was a sudden knock on her door. She practically jumped up, running a hand through her hair nervously as she headed for the door. She didn’t know why she got nervous right before seeing Cheryl in person every time, but there was never a lack of butterflies.

Toni bit down on the inside of her lower lip as she swung open her door, revealing her girlfriend, wearing way too nice of an outfit for a plane ride. “Hey,” Toni greeted, looking her up and down—at her tight jeans, her red sweater that was tucked into it, the heeled red boots, and the black coat over her shoulders. “You are way overdressed for a plane ride; I can’t believe you wore that.”

A laugh immediately came out of Cheryl’s lips—which were painted more of a matte shade than normal. “Hello to you, too. I came from a business lunch. I didn’t have time to change before getting on the plane.”

“Right,” Toni said with a smile, “well, come in. How was the flight? Did Kev, Katy, and Josie make it to their Airbnb?”

“Yeah, we took the same cab because the Airbnb was on the way here,” Cheryl answered, as she walked into the apartment, dragging her suitcase behind her, “and the flight was fine. I tried to nap, but Kevin and Josie would not stop talking about this musical they saw the other day, and it kept me up.”

“Poor baby,” Toni teased.

“Mm. How was your day?”

“Fine,” Toni answered, “Storm and Peaches kept bugging me at work today about how excited they are to meet you. Apparently, they’re upset that they didn’t invited to the big group dinner in October. It’s definitely Fangs fault for mentioning it to them.”

Cheryl chuckled, releasing her hold on her suitcase and taking a few steps closer to Toni before wrapping her arms around her. “Well, they’re going to be at your party tomorrow? After the ceremony?”

“Yeah. I’m not really close enough with them to invite them to the actual ceremony.”

“Makes sense. Are you excited?”

Toni smiled a little. “Yes. I honestly like, can’t believe that I did it.”

“I can,” Cheryl said sweetly, “one of the first things I ever admired about you was how hard you work.”

“You met me while I was on vacation.”

“Yeah, and you saved up for it for _seven_ years. Pretty impressive.”

“I love you.”

Cheryl’s cheeks turned a little pink as she smiled. “I love you, TT. Now… I know you don’t usually have much real food here, but is there something I can eat? I haven’t had dinner.”

“Shit, yeah of course,” Toni said, starting to pull away from her girlfriend to go to the fridge, but Cheryl maintained her grasp and pulled Toni closer to her. “Um, don’t you want—” Cheryl cut her off with a firm kiss, her lips moving purposefully against Toni’s. Toni melted into her girlfriend’s embrace, feeling relief wash over her body. She felt this way every time she got to see Cheryl after a while. Cheryl started to pull her lips away, but Toni followed them, and the redhead laughed into their kiss. Toni gave in and took a step back, separating their lips. “Alright, let me get you some food now. Um… I think I have some leftover pasta I made a couple of days ago?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Cool.” Toni went to her fridge and grabbed out the Tupperware and stuck it into the microwave after popping open the lid.

“So, Veronica planned your graduation party, right?” Cheryl asked.

“Right. I’m worried that she went really overboard, but I really have no idea, because she wouldn’t let me ask any questions once I gave her permission to basically do whatever she wanted.”

“Where’s it at? Her place?”

“No, she rented out some like gazebo area at a park about half an hour out from here,” Toni answered, “and since the party is going to be happening in the afternoon, it should still not be too cold out.”

“Yeah, I can’t believe how warm it is here,” Cheryl said with a shake of her head. “I was definitely overdressed for both the weather and the trip.”

When the food was heated up, they went to Toni’s couch and Cheryl slipped off her boots before starting to eat the pasta right out of the Tupperware. Toni caught herself staring at the beautiful woman sitting next to her. Sometimes she couldn’t believe that Cheryl, who was used to living in the lap of luxury, loved her, and didn’t mind sitting on an old, beat up couch eating three-day old pasta out of a Tupperware. And every time that Cheryl had visited LA, Toni had taken her around to see some of her favorite spots, which were most all cheap cafes and diners, or locations with free entertainment. Cheryl never cared, though, and Toni had never even seen her look uncomfortable in any of those situations.

“I love you,” Toni heard herself say suddenly, causing Cheryl’s dark eyes to look at her curiously.

“I love you too, baby,” Cheryl responded after swallowing her bite.

“I missed you.”

“I always miss you,” Cheryl said back to her—that had become their thing. Every time one of them said “I miss you” over the phone, the other would respond with “I always miss you.” Toni hated how sappy it was, but she also totally didn’t. Her friends didn’t need to know that she was such a secret sap. Cheryl extended her legs across the couch, resting them in Toni’s lap, so Toni rested her palms atop them. “What time do we need to head to USC in the morning?”

“Early,” Toni admitted. “I have to be checked in no later than eight-thirty, so we should leave here at like seven-thirty, just in case. Saturday or not, traffic here _sucks_.”

“Okay. What time do you walk?”

“Ceremony starts at nine, and we’ll all walk between like nine-thirty and ten-thirty, I think. Then closing statements, we’re out of there by eleven. Honestly, I’m glad I’m not graduating in the spring, there would be so many more people to wait on,” Toni said with a shake of her head.

Cheryl nodded, finishing up the pasta that she had eaten relatively quickly—Toni supposed that it probably had been close to seven or eight hours since she’d eaten, so it made sense. “I’m so excited for you, TT.”

“Wait till you see me in my graduation look,” Toni said with a chuckle.

“Can I see it now?”

“No, that would ruin the effect tomorrow morning.”

“What are you wearing under your gown?”

“A super sexy dress that you will get to see _tomorrow_.”

Cheryl let out a dramatic sigh. “Fine.”

“We should probably sleep early tonight, as in, soon,” Toni admitted, “so we have the energy for getting up so early and making it through the ceremony _and_ the party.”

“Soon… does that mean we don’t have time for me to give you one last pre-graduation orgasm?”

Toni felt her cheeks redden. “No, I think we have time for that… we should be quick about it, though.”

“Well, then, Miss Topaz, I suggest you get your cute ass into the bedroom, hm?”

* * *

“Oh my god, you look adorable,” Cheryl exclaimed, reaching for Toni’s camera, which was sitting on top of her dresser. “Put on the cap, babe!”

Toni tried not to roll her eyes as she grabbed her graduation cap off of the bed and stuck it on her head, ensuring that the tassel was hanging on the correct side. She was wearing her gown over her dress and had her favorite black heels on as well. Cheryl hadn’t been allowed to see the dress yet, because Toni thought it would be more fun to surprise her girlfriend later in the day.

“Smile!” Toni obeyed. Cheryl was being too cute for her to even try to pretend like she cared that she wanted to take pictures of her. She let her girlfriend take multiple pictures, and then started doing funny poses until Cheryl finally laughed and lowered the camera. “Okay, we should go, right?”

“Right. You sure you don’t mind taking pictures during the ceremony?”

“I don’t mind. In fact, I’m honored that I get to man your camera for the event.”

“If you get too emotional during, just hand it to V,” Toni teased. “Whatever you do, though, don’t give it to Fangs. I swear, that boy has butterfingers. It is impossible to count how many times he’s dropped very important campaigning materials at work.”

Cheryl smirked. “Noted. Come on, let’s go, the Lyft should be here.”

Toni took off her cap as she and Cheryl left the apartment and headed down to where their Lyft was, in fact, waiting for them.

The car ride was filled with nervous energy—Toni couldn’t remember the last time she was so nervous for something. Cheryl must have been able to sense the feeling, because halfway through the ride, she grabbed Toni’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

When they go to USC, Cheryl gave Toni a deep, passionate kiss and the wish of good luck before they split up, Cheryl heading to the audience, and Toni going to check in for the ceremony.

At eight-forty-five, Toni was seated in the front of the audience, her cap on, surrounded by other graduates from the fine arts college. She couldn’t stop tapping her toe—a nervous tick she hadn’t done in years—but she knew that it would pass soon. Soon, she would be walking across the stage, and the nerves would be gone. She would have finally walked at her college graduation.

She barely heard any of the speeches given by various people over the next half hour, and when people finally started getting up, row by row, from the graduate seating, she found herself mindlessly applauding after every name and staring at the next row of people to get up. She felt her heart racing. She wished Cheryl could be sitting with her right now, squeezing her hand and promising her that she could get through this.

When the row in front of her stood up and started lining up on the side of the stage, Toni swallowed her fear as best as she could, and clenched her fists. She reminded herself of the people who were here to support her, and of how hard she’d worked to get here, and it was hard to do, but she finally managed to calm herself down enough that when her row stood up, she didn’t fall right over.

She followed the person next to her as they walked up the ramp to the side of the stage. She took a deep breath, and watched person after person walk across the stage, get handed their diploma, shake the dean’s hand and pose for a picture, and then walk off. It was simple. She could do it.

And finally, she heard “Toni Topaz, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art, emphasis in Photography!” Toni almost froze, but then she took in a breath and started to walk across the stage. As she did, through all of the applause, she thought she heard some very intense screaming, and she felt her heart swell. She accepted her diploma and then extended her hand to the dean. They shook hands and faced out into the audience for the quick photo, and then Toni saw them—Cheryl and her friends. They were all clustered off to the right, standing on their feet, cheering and screaming excitedly. She felt tears brimming in her eyes as the photo was taken, and she thanked the dean.

Then she was walking off of the stage, and her heart was still pounding, but now it was out of adrenaline. She did it. She walked across the stage and got her diploma. She graduated.

She felt a tear escape her eye and she hastily wiped it away as she headed back to her seat. After the last group of students went up and received their diplomas, the dean gave a final speech, and asked the graduates to flip their tassel. Toni couldn't believe it was real as she flipped it pointedly, grinning as she heard the audience applauding.

When the ceremony was over, everyone left the stadium and Toni immediately began searching for her friends. They were easy to find, though, because they were standing in a huge group, talking loudly and excitedly. As soon as they saw her, they all started screaming in excitement.

“There she is!” Veronica exclaimed.

Toni had a grin stuck on her face as she looked at the whole group who had gotten up super early on a Saturday to be here for her—Veronica, Sweet Pea, Fangs, Kevin, Katy, Josie, and, of course, Cheryl. “How dumb did I look?” Toni asked.

“Oh my god, not at all!” Katy exclaimed, at the same time as Josie, almost with the exact same wording.

“You did not look dumb,” Cheryl agreed, “you looked flawless, as per usual, and absolutely badass.”

“I’m so proud of you, Tiny,” Sweet Pea said with a grin. “I never doubted you for a second.”

“Pretty sure you did sophomore year of high school. I remember a very specific conversation where—”

“Hey, I was stupid,” Sweet Pea interrupted, “and ever since then, I never doubted you.”

“We really are so proud of you, babes,” Veronica exclaimed, grabbing Toni in a hug. Suddenly, the whole group was gathering around, wrapping Toni up in a giant group hug.

As Toni tried to hug them all back, a laugh sputtered out of her, and all of the sudden she was crying. “Shit! Did we hurt you?” Kevin exclaimed, and they all jumped back—aside from Cheryl, who was wrapping her arms around her.

“Babe?”

“No, no, I’m fine,” Toni insisted, through her tears, attempting to wipe them away even as they kept coming. “I just… I love you guys. I’ve never…” She sniffed. “Um, I’m just appreciative of you guys.”

“Aw, we are so proud of you, Toni,” Veronica promised her. “And we love you too.”

“Yes, we do,” Sweet Pea agreed, “and you should be proud of yourself, Toni.”

“I am,” Toni said through her tears, which were lightening up, thankfully. “Thank you all for being here.”

They all chimed in about how they were so happy to be there for her, and Toni really felt so overwhelmed with love for all of these amazing people in her life.

“How about we head to the party now?” Veronica suggested.

“Wait!” Cheryl exclaimed suddenly. “Hold on, I was put in charge of pictures, and we haven’t taken any post-graduation pictures yet. Everyone needs a turn with Toni.”

Fangs snickered. “You’ve trained her, Toni.”

They all took turns standing with Toni to get a picture—except Katy, Josie, and Kevin all took one together with her—and then Veronica took one of Cheryl and Toni. Then, they managed to someone else who was around to take one of all of them. Finally, they all started heading to the park for the party.

In addition to everyone who had been at the ceremony, there were a number of other people at the party. Betty and Jughead, Storm and Peaches, Joaquin, Kiera—Toni’s boss, and a few other of her coworkers. It wasn’t huge, but Toni didn’t need a surplus of people around her to celebrate—just the people most important to her.

The party was less over-the-top than Toni had imagined, thankfully. There was a lot of champagne and the lunch was burgers. Veronica made sure to mention that she wanted something fancier, but Sweet Pea had insisted that Toni would want burgers. Honestly, Toni wouldn’t have cared either way. She felt high on life, and nothing could bring her down.

She also took off her cap and gown when they got there, revealing the new dress she’d bought herself for this occasion. It was a purple to black hombre, and it matched her purple hair. It also clung very well to her body, if she did say so herself.

Storm and Peaches were excited to meet Cheryl—Peaches joked that it was because Toni talked about her so much, and they’d been wondering if she was even real. Cheryl thought that was amusing, and Toni had just been embarrassed.

Toni kept noticing Cheryl taking pictures during the party, and every time she did, she couldn’t fight the smile that appeared on her face. She loved that Cheryl was so invested in her duty as photographer for the day.

When they were full on burgers and buzzed on champagne, and they’d been chilling and talking for quite a while, Veronica cleared her throat and stood up in front of the group. “Okay, so, I already know that Toni won’t want me to get super sappy here, but I have to do it anyway.”

Toni groaned. “V…”

“Shut up, Tiny, you deserve this,” Sweet Pea snapped at her, and she shut her mouth.

“Toni Topaz. My best friend. My very unexpected best friend, actually. We met in high school, and I thought you were a little bit crazy, because the first time I saw you, you were doing wheelies on your motorcycle in the school parking lot.”

“Veronica, you know this isn’t a maid of honor speech, right?” Toni asked.

“Shush!” Veronica exclaimed, as the group chuckled. “The point is, I thought you were pretty wild, which… you definitely were. But I had just gone through some terrible friend drama, and needed new people, and I took a chance with you and your people, and I never looked back. You and I have supported each other through thick and thin ever since, and you are the reason that I met the love of my life, so that’s also pretty great, too.” Toni laughed involuntarily at that. “Anyway. Toni, I have watched you claw your way through life when necessary. You have worked two to three jobs almost the entire time I have known you, and you busted your ass in school and work all the fucking time. You managed to save up for your dream trip to Europe—where you somehow met your dream girl by some crazy dumb luck—and now I just watched you walk across the stage and get your diploma. And… girl, I am just so fucking proud of you, and so proud to call you my best friend.”

Toni felt tears coming to her eyes again, and she sniffed and sat up straight as she said, “Dude, I already cried earlier, you really want to make me cry again?”

“Hug me, bestie!” Veronica exclaimed, and Toni got up and let her best friend wrap her up in a hug.

“That was so sweet, Veronica,” Katy cooed.

“I wrote a speech, too,” Sweet Pea said with a goofy grin as Toni pulled out her hug with Veronica.

Veronica’s smiled dropped off of her face as she looked at her boyfriend. “No, Sweet Pea, you wrote down the second half of my speech on a piece of paper and titled it, ‘Sweet Pea’s Speech.’”

“Yeah, so basically, what she said,” Sweet Pea said with a chuckle.

Toni rolled her eyes, a smile on her face. “You guys are ridiculous.”

The party wrapped up pretty quickly after that, and Veronica insisted that Cheryl and Toni should go home and that she and Sweet Pea would clean up the party mess. So Toni thanked everyone for coming, and reluctantly accepted some gifts in the form of sealed envelopes, before she and Cheryl called a Lyft and headed back to Toni’s apartment.

When they got back, Toni settled onto the couch to open her envelopes. She had one from Fangs, and it was just a graduation card with a sweet message written inside of it. There was one from her boss, which was a congratulations card accompanied by a Visa gift card. The last one was from Betty and Jughead and was yet another card and sweet message. “These are sweet,” Toni said aloud, although Cheryl had gone into Toni’s room to grab something. “Ugh, I can’t believe I cried so much today.”

“It’s okay to cry, it’s a big deal,” she heard Cheryl call back to her, before coming back into the living room with a decent sized, red gift box in her hands.

“Aw, babe, you didn’t have to get me anything,” Toni insisted.

“I wanted to,” Cheryl insisted, sitting next to her and passing her the box. “Open it.”

Toni pulled the lid of the gift box off to reveal something covered in tissue paper. She held her breath in anticipation as she unfolded the tissue paper, revealing a collage style picture frame filled with photographs. _Her_ photographs.

There were five, four corners and one in the center. In the top right corner, there was the picture of Cheryl sitting on the balcony in Athens. In the bottom left corner, across from that one, was the picture of Toni in front of Piazza Navona. The top left was one of the pictures of Cinque Terre, and across from that one, in the bottom right, was the sunset in Florence, on the Ponte Santa Trinita. That one was one that Toni had taken on Cheryl’s phone, and so was the one in the middle—it was the selfie of the two of them on the bridge that night in Florence. Before they had gone back to the hotel and swam on the rooftop pool.

“Cheryl,” Toni breathed out, “oh my god, you got these framed…”

“I had a really hard time picking which ones to frame,” Cheryl admitted, “so… there may or may not be a few other sets back at my apartment. I’ll show you when you come after Christmas…”

“Baby,” Toni whispered, “this is so amazing, I love it. Let’s hang it now.”

“Okay, where?” Cheryl asked with a chuckle.

“In my bedroom? I think I have a few spare nails we can use.”

Toni was determined to have these pictures hanging in her room immediately, so she and Cheryl rummaged through Toni’s stuff until they found a few wall nails and a hammer, and then they centered it on one of Toni’s bedroom walls, and hung the collage frame neatly on the wall. Toni wrapped her arms around Cheryl as she stared at it for a moment.

“It’s beautiful.”

“I hope the ones from my phone look okay with the ones you edited.”

“They look perfect. Perks of you having a fancy ass iPhone.”

“I’m glad that you love it, Toni.”

“Your phone?”

“The gift, babe.”

“Right.”

Cheryl chuckled. Suddenly, Toni heard her phone start ringing from the living room, and she pulled away from her girlfriend. “I should see who that is.” She went and grabbed her phone, Cheryl following her, and did not recognize the number. The call was from New York, though, and she thought that maybe it was one of Cheryl’s other friends, so she curiously answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Toni?” a man’s voice asked, and Toni immediately recognized it as her father’s voice.

“Shit—dad?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” he answered with a hollow laugh. “Um, sorry to call you like this, but… you graduated today, right? I got your graduation announcement a few weeks ago.”

“Yeah,” Toni answered, sitting down on the couch. Cheryl was looking at her with wide, but soft, eyes, and she sat next to Toni, placing her hand on her lower back reassuringly. “Yeah, this morning.”

“You stuck with photography?”

“Yep. You’re now talking to Toni Topaz, BFA in Art with an emphasis on photography,” Toni answered with a little laugh. “Um… I guess I didn’t think you’d really reach out to me.”

“It’s been so long since we last talked, so I didn’t even know if I was going to,” he admitted. “I wasn’t sure you would want me to, but since you did send me the announcement… I figured maybe it was worth a shot.”

Toni nodded slowly. “How… how have you been?”

“Better,” he admitted, “a lot better. I’ve been sober for almost a year. I haven’t always been the best with keeping it up, but over the past few years, I’ve been having longer and longer periods of being sober, and this is my longest in a long time.”

“That’s good. So, you have a job, and everything?”

“Yeah. Working for a construction company, actually.”

“That’s cool.”

“What about you, how are you? I mean, I know you just graduated, but what else?”

Toni thought about everything that had happened since she last talked to her dad. Her college party girl phase, getting both of her current jobs, starting to do photography gigs on the side, dating Sara, breaking up with Sara, going to Europe, meeting Cheryl, and now graduating. “I’m good,” she decided on, “yeah, uh, I have a couple jobs. I work at a nonprofit as a photographer on the weekdays and bartend on the weekends. But I also do some freelance photography, and now that I don’t have to pay for school, I’m hoping to start focusing more on that.”

“That’s amazing, Toni. What about outside of work? You still friends with Nathan and Veronica?”

Toni rolled her eyes at her dad calling Sweet Pea _Nathan_ —he hadn’t gone by that at all since they were twelve years old, but Toni’s dad hadn’t been around all that much after that point, so he probably just didn’t really remember. “Yep, and they’re dating actually, have been for a while now. They’re still my best friends. Threw a big graduation party for me.”

“And what about your dating life? You got a special guy? Or—err, um, or gal, I know you swing both ways.”

Toni laughed a little, looking at Cheryl, who must’ve been able to hear her dad talking, because the corners of her lips were turned up. “Yeah, actually. I have a girlfriend. Her name is Cheryl. We’ve been together about seven months.”

“Great, that’s great,” her dad said, and Toni could tell he was trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible. He had never had a problem with her being bi, but he had always been a bit awkward about it. But even when he was at his worst with drugs, he’d never given her shit for it. “I’m happy for you, Toni. And I know that I was a shitty father to you, but I’m so proud of you for making it as far as you have without any good role models. Just goes to show what kind of person you are, really. Probably got that from my dad.”

Toni smiled sadly, thinking about her late grandfather, who had died when she was young. She had really good memories of him, even if they were few and far between. “Thanks.”

“And hey… if you ever do want to reconnect, I’m still in Kingston. Probably will be forever, so… but no pressure. I know that you probably don’t really need a dad in your life anymore, after going so long without one.”

Toni relaxed backward into the couch, letting out a sigh. She thought about the snake arm band that she wore so often—the last thing her father had ever given her before she left for college. She really loved wearing it, mostly because it was cute and fit her aesthetic, but part of her liked to wear it to remember the time when she did have a good relationship with her dad, even in the brief moments when he’d been sober enough to try and connect with her. She had been disappointed in him for most of her life, but she had never truly hated him. “I think… maybe I would like that. Maybe not right away, but I’ll keep it in mind. Plus, Cheryl actually lives in New York, so I’ll be nearby sometimes.”

“Again, no pressure…”

“I know, dad.”

“This is my cell number though, so if you’re ever going to be in town and want to stop by, just give me a call.”

“Okay,” Toni agreed, smiling. “Yeah.”

“Okay. Well, congratulations, Toni. I’m proud of you, and happy for you.”

“Thank you, dad. And thanks for calling.”

“You’re welcome, and uh… you know, I love ya, kid. I’ll talk to you another time.”

“Yeah,” Toni returned softly, surprised at hearing her dad tell her that he loved her, “have a good night.”

“You too, Toni.”

The call ended, and Toni let out a long breath. “Wow.” Cheryl’s hand was rubbing her back, and Toni met her girlfriend’s eyes. “I guess you heard all that?”

“Yeah. Are you happy that he called?”

“Yes,” Toni answered, “I really didn’t think he would, but I am glad that he did. It was kind of crazy to talk to him, but… I am really happy to hear that he’s been sober for so long, and he really did sound like he meant well… and you know, we had a pretty shitty relationship most of the time, because he was always high or wasted, and he was not great at taking care of me. But we had our moments, you know?”

Cheryl nodded. “Yeah, I know you’ve said a few good things about your relationship with him.”

“Yeah. Yeah, but… you know, I didn’t need him to call me today, and I’m happy about that, too. He’s sort of right… I don’t need a dad. Would I like to have a relationship with him? Probably, but I don’t need him to be proud of me. I have all of my incredible friends, who have supported me for way longer than my dad has, and now you…” Cheryl smiled. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Toni. And I’m glad that he called you. And if you do decide you want to go to Kingston to see him… I’ll be right there with you… if you want me to be. Admittedly, I’m a bit weary of parents, but I like to think I’ve gotten better ever since I broke ties with mine.”

“Thanks, baby. I appreciate the offer, and probably if I do go, I’ll want you with me.” Cheryl nodded, wrapping her arms around Toni.

They sat there for a few moments, just wrapped up in each other’s arms, before Cheryl asked, “So what’s the plan for the rest of the day, Miss Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art with an emphasis in photography?”

A lighthearted laugh bubbled out of Toni at that, and she grinned at her adorable girlfriend. “I don’t know, actually. But I don’t care. I just want to spend today with you.”

“Well, perfect, because I’m not going anywhere.”

For the millionth time that day, Toni felt her heart swell with love and appreciation. “Perfect. Just like you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Toni Topaz graduating college is my shit, I decided after writing and reading this back. I'm super bummed I won't get to walk in December. Makes it all feel kinda anticlimactic. But I'm also going straight into grad school. So hopefully I'll be able to walk for that graduation in a year or two...
> 
> I hope you guys liked this chapter! There's three more! Next one is Christmas :) And thanks for the sweet comments and kudos after I posted the first chapter of this lil sequel, glad to see you all found it okay :D
> 
> For anyone curious... I've been trying to find something else to write (been trying to branch into Wayhaught but I've been failing so I think maybe that's the universe telling me I need to focus on Choni hahaha) but since I haven't grasped onto an idea yet, I'm working on the Toni POV version of What A Time! It's currently about 80,000 words, and I've gone through 18 chapters of What A Time. Hopefully in the next month or so I can finish it and start posting it shortly after this ends!
> 
> Anyway, that's it from me today! Thank you all for joining me here to read this update, I appreciate it so much! And as always, you can follow me on Twitter @BrittzandTana and feel free to tweet at me, DM me, or comment here, or whatever :) xx See y'all Sunday!


	3. Double Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a Choni (and friends) Christmas!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey friends! Sorry for no update last night! In all honesty, I was like "I need to remember to update" and then I made soup, and then I just never remembered again. LMAO. The soup was good though.
> 
> Even though it's late and I didn't get to respond to y'all's comments, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter <3

“God, I can’t wait for Cheryl to get here,” Veronica said, looking at Toni with a grimace. Toni was sprawled across Veronica and Sweet Pea’s comforter, and she had been whining for the past half hour about Veronica wasn’t talking to her enough. “It’s literally only been like, two weeks since you saw her last, why are you being so annoying?”

“Because, the hardest part of waiting to see Cheryl is when she’s literally on her way here,” Toni insisted, “and you aren’t talking to me enough to keep me distracted!”

“I’m trying to do my eyeliner! You know I can’t talk and do my eyeliner at the same time, T.”

“Whatever.”

It was Christmas Eve morning—Cheryl had flown overnight in order to get here this morning, because she’d had work the previous day. For Christmas tomorrow, Toni’s friend group was going to be gathering here at Veronica’s apartment for a gift exchange, which was their annual tradition, but for today, Toni and Veronica had decided to do a double date. They were going to go to a little coffee shop and café for lunch, and then go drive around the suburbs around Los Angeles to look at Christmas lights. It was something that Toni and Veronica had used to do when they first moved to LA.

Cheryl was meeting them at Veronica and Sweet Pea’s apartment, which is why Toni was here bothering Veronica while she waited for her girlfriend.

Toni saw Veronica set down her eyeliner, blinking at herself in the mirror, and then said, “Okay, now distract me from waiting.”

“You are absolutely ridiculous, Topaz.”

“I get like this every time,” Toni insisted, “it’s horrible.”

“You’re just adorable and excited. I hope you know, though, that one day, when the two of you do get married, I will be talking about this at your wedding.”

“Whatever you say.”

Toni’s phone buzzed suddenly, and she grabbed it quickly, seeing that it was a text from her girlfriend.

**Cheryl – On my way up.**

“She’s here,” Toni chimed happily.

As soon as Cheryl knocked and was let into the apartment, Toni was immediately greeted with a “Merry Christmas Eve!” and a soft kiss. Less than a second later, Veronica was saying, “Cheryl, your girlfriend has been literally bothering me all morning waiting for you to get here.”

Cheryl smirked. “What am I supposed to do about that?”

“I don’t know, but I just wanted you to know that I have been collateral damage during your travel time.”

“V, maybe you should just invent teleportation,” Toni suggested sarcastically.

“I really would if I could.”

Sweet Pea suddenly came out of the bedroom—he had been in the bathroom getting ready when Toni and Veronica had been in the bedroom. “Hey, Cheryl! How was your flight?”

“It was good,” she answered, “I managed to sleep on most of it, thankfully.”

“So, you’re ready for Christmas Eve lunch?” Toni inquired with a grin.

“Definitely.”

They left the apartment and drove to the café they were getting lunch at—Toni and Veronica had specifically decided on it because of their festive coffee options. Toni ordered a peppermint mocha, and Cheryl got a gingerbread latte, and halfway through they swapped. Sweet Pea and Veronica made sure to make fun of them for it.

They all caught up with Cheryl during the lunch, even though it had only been two weeks since they saw her for Toni’s graduation, some things had still been going on. Cheryl had been working like crazy, because K&B was starting a new line of bags, belts, and boots—the three B’s, Katy had called them—and it apparently required a lot of behind the scenes effort to get things like that going.

Toni had also been working like crazy, because she was getting ready to give her two week notice at the bar. In all of her free time, she had been making a website on a cheap website hosting site for her new photography business: Takes by Topaz. She had also been splurging on a few new accessories for her camera and other equipment and had been developing a business model. It was totally not her forte, which was why she had been spending a lot of her phone calls with Cheryl talking about the business and getting her advice and input. She was finally getting it where she wanted it, though, which was beyond exciting.

Meanwhile, Veronica had been busy with her own business ventures—she had spent the past few years as a financial consultant and was now finally going to be opening her own consulting business. Toni knew that the only reason she hadn’t done it sooner was because of her not so great relationship with her business tycoon parents, and her disdain for the way they did business.

And Sweet Pea, well, he had been working in IT, the same job he’d had for a few years now, and had enrolled in classes for the spring semester. But there was one other thing he’d been working on, but Toni was the only one who knew about it. It was one of the reasons that Sweet Pea had taken the fall semester off from school—he had been saving up money to buy a ring. Veronica had no idea it was coming, but Toni knew that Sweet Pea had a ring box in his pocket.

They finished up their lunch, but it was too early to go look at Christmas lights, so they decided to go to The Grove and wander around some. It was nice to just hang out with her girlfriend and her best friends, and Toni loved how well Veronica and Sweet Pea got along with Cheryl.

When the sun was setting, they got back into the car and drove out to the suburbs—where the best Christmas light setups could always be found. As they drove slowly through the neighborhoods, Toni cuddled up next to Cheryl as they stared out at the multicolored lights. She learned that Cheryl’s favorites were ones with a lot of red—no surprise there—but that she also really loved snowmen being incorporated in the decorations, despite the lack of snow. That got Toni, Veronica, and Sweet Pea to immediately complain about how much they missed snow now that they were in LA. Cheryl reminded Toni that they would be in New York in a couple of days, and that there would very likely be at least some snow, that brought a smile to Toni’s face.

They came to a park that was covered in beautiful lights, and Toni suggested that they stop and walk around—seemingly random, but she and Sweet Pea had planned it.

When they all got out of the car, Sweet Pea grabbed Veronica’s hand and they started walking off in one direction. Cheryl started to follow, but Toni caught her arm and held her back. “Wait, no,” she said softly.

Cheryl looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “You up to something, babe?”

“No,” Toni answered, “but he is.” She nodded toward her best friends, and Cheryl glanced over at them. They were just talking quietly as they walked, and Toni started to lead Cheryl off in a different direction but kept close enough that she could at least see her friends—yeah, she wanted to see it when it happened.

And when Sweet Pea and Veronica stopped walking, she froze, nodding in their direction again so that Cheryl would look. “What are they doing?” Cheryl asked. “TT, I’m confused.”

“Just wait,” Toni whispered, pulling Cheryl over to one of the trees and leaning against it, wrapping her free arm around to Cheryl’s right coat pocket, from which she grabbed the woman’s phone.

“Um, what are you—”

“You have a better phone than me,” Toni whispered, opening the camera app on the phone faster than she ever had before. And just as she lined up the shot and adjusted the camera to the dimly lit park, Sweet Pea dropped down on one knee, and Veronica’s gasp could be heard all the way from where they were standing.

The first photo Toni took saw Sweet Pea on his knee, holding open the ring box, and Veronica with her hands clasped over her mouth, both of them mostly silhouettes.

In the second photo, Veronica reaching down to grab the ring, and Sweet Pea starting to stand back up—in that moment, they could hear Veronica exclaim, “Yes!”

The third photo showed Veronica looking down at her hand, and Sweet Pea’s face was illuminated enough to see the huge grin he wore.

And in the last photo, Veronica had tugged her fiancée into a tight embrace, and her expression was visible in the colorful Christmas Eve lights—especially thanks to the tears streaking her cheeks.

“Oh my god,” Cheryl breathed out, “I have never watched anyone propose to someone before.”

“Me neither,” Toni whispered, lowering Cheryl’s phone, and just staring at her best friends. “I’m so happy for them. Sweets has been saving for that ring for a while. And honestly, it’s about time they tie the knot. They aren’t getting any younger.”

Cheryl lifted an eyebrow at Toni. “I am older than all three of you.”

Toni blushed, and avoided the point Cheryl was making by handing the phone back to her. “Mind sending those to me? I offered to take some legit pictures for him, but Sweets didn’t want that… but I couldn’t help myself.”

“Won’t he be upset that you took any, then?”

“No, because Veronica will be pissed if this wasn’t documented,” Toni answered with a chuckle. “Well, I mean not really, but she will love these pictures. Did you see them?”

Cheryl looked at the last four photos taken on her phone, and Toni waited to see her reaction. “Wow. It still amazes me what you can do with a camera—whether its an actual camera or just a phone.”

When they all met back up at the car, Veronica’s makeup was a little bit of a mess, but she was no longer crying as she showed the ring to Cheryl and Toni.

Sweet Pea and Veronica drove Cheryl and Toni back to Toni’s apartment after that, and the whole car ride was full of Veronica not being able to wrap her head around how smoothly Sweet Pea’s plan had gone—thanks to Toni, the purple haired girl made sure to remind her. Toni might’ve gotten annoyed at Veronica mentioning it so many times, but she knew that her best friend was just happy, and Toni was more than happy about that.

When Cheryl and Toni got back to her apartment, Cheryl let out a breath and said, “That was so sweet. And I can’t believe you didn’t tell me it was going to happen!”

“I swore to Sweets that I would keep it a secret,” Toni said, “although, I was going to tell you, but…”

“But?”

Toni shrugged. “I dunno. Just didn’t.” Cheryl walked up to Toni and brought her hand up to her purple hair.

“Toni.”

“I don’t know, I guess just it put the concept of marriage on my mind. You know? I used to hate the idea of marrying someone, until my first long term relationship, and then it seemed like something I’d actually do. And then that crashed and burned, and I was back to wondering if it was worth it to commit to someone like that… but seeing Sweets and Veronica together after all of these years… and sometimes they drive each other crazy, but they love each other so fucking much, and I am so happy for them, but it’s just been making me think a lot… and I mean, we’ve only been dating for like, almost eight months, so like I just didn’t—”

Cheryl cut Toni off by sealing their lips in a surprise kiss, and Toni felt herself relax immediately. A second later, Cheryl pulled back, and her eyebrow was quirked. “Mademoiselle Topaz, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard you sound so flustered.”

“Yeah, usually I can keep my calm around beautiful women, but…”

“But not when you’re talking about marriage?” Cheryl asked with a chuckle. Toni felt warmth come to her cheeks, and she rolled her eyes. “So, after all of your thinking the past few months, what did you come up with? You want to get married—to someone—one day? Or, marriage isn’t for you?”

Toni bit down on her lower lip. “I think I’d like to. Just… you know, the commitment is kind of crazy, right?”

“Not really,” Cheryl answered with a shrug. “I mean, sure, financially and legally it is a major commitment. But if you know all the rules going in, it’s not so scary. Just like any business arrangement, TT. That’s all marriage is. The scary commitment part is the relationship. If the business arrangement between you and your partner is terrifying, then you should maybe reevaluate your relationship with your partner. Not you—I mean, in general.”

“Cheryl Blossom, Chief Executive Officer of K&B and marriage counselor?” Toni teased, grinning at her girlfriend and landing her hands on the woman’s hips.

“Shh, it’s a secret.”

“Mm. But also, why am I not surprised that you summed a marriage up as a business arrangement?”

“Have you ever read marriage documents, TT? That is literally what they are.”

“I fucking love you, Cheryl.”

Cheryl bit down on her lower lip, clearly trying and failing to keeping a grin from slipping onto her face. “I love you, Toni.”

“Do we need to sign a business agreement for me to be able to fuck you until it’s officially Christmas, or…?”

Cheryl pressed her body into Toni’s, and Toni wrapped her arms around her tightly. “TT. Take me to your bed. Fuck me.” Toni felt her heart beating between her legs, and her hands grabbed at Cheryl’s ass.

“Mm, your wish is my command, baby.”

* * *

“Baby, we aren’t supposed to be at Veronica’s until ten,” Toni whined, “why do we need to leave at nine?”

“I thought she said nine-thirty?” Cheryl responded, frowning.

“No, she said ten!”

“Well. The Lyft is literally about to be here.”

Toni sighed, grabbing her things—including her bag of lame gifts for her friends. “Fine, let’s go.” They left Toni’s apartment and found their Lyft waiting for them by the curb. “Let me just text V and tell her we’ll be early…”

Cheryl rested her hand on Toni’s hand. “I’m sure there’s no need.” Toni lifted an eyebrow at her girlfriend.

“Okay, you’re being weird.”

“Weird?”

“Yes.”

“Mm.”

“Don’t _mm_ me, why are you being weird?” Toni asked, before glancing out the window and realizing that they were headed in the opposite direction of Veronica and Sweet Pea’s apartment. “Um, babe, where are we going?”

“To get your Christmas gift,” Cheryl answered, flipping some of her hair over her shoulder.

“I thought we were going to do our gifts tonight?” Toni asked.

“Well, this one couldn’t wait until tonight.”

Toni bit down on the inside of her lip—honestly, she was excited to see what it was that Cheryl had gotten for her, but she also knew that Cheryl had a ton more money than she did, so she was expecting the gift to be too big. Although, no matter the size of the gift, she knew she would end up accepting it. It had been hard for her to get used to accepting that Cheryl was going to pay for things more often than she was, and that that was okay. It wasn’t like Toni never covered dinner or anything like that. And it wasn’t like Toni ever asked Cheryl to pay for anything for her.

Toni watched out the window at the stores and places they were passing, trying to figure out where they were going, and then she saw it—the Kawasaki dealer. She sucked in a breath—there was no way that Cheryl was about to buy her a motorcycle. But then the car slowed down and turned on its blinker to turn into the parking lot of the dealer, and Toni looked at Cheryl in excitement. “Are you serious?”

“Dead serious, TT.”

“Oh my god, Cheryl—but that’s—that’s a crazy expensive gift, are you really serious?”

“TT. I love you. And you will more than pay me back by taking me on your dream cross-country motorcycle trip one day,” Cheryl said softly, grabbing Toni’s hand and squeezing it. Toni felt her heart swell, and when the Lyft stopped to drop them off, Toni practically jumped out of the car.

They went up to the dealer, and Toni said, “Are they really open on Christmas?”

“Apparently. Don’t worry, I checked first—otherwise I was going to bring you yesterday.”

When a salesperson approached them, Cheryl gave him her name, apparently, they had spoken on the phone the other day. He brought them to look at a specific bike—the newest model of the Ninja. It wasn’t the most top-of-the-line motorcycle, but it was definitely a great motorcycle, and Toni was already getting excited.

The dealer also had a selection of helmets for her to choose from, and she got a black one for her and a red one for Cheryl, who, despite having planned this, looked a little apprehensive.

Cheryl and Toni filled out the paperwork, and when they asked to see Toni’s motorcycle license—which Toni promptly pulled out—she looked at Cheryl with curiosity. “How did you even know I had my California motorcycle license?”

“I may have asked Veronica for some details a few months ago,” Cheryl answered. “I didn’t want you buy you something you couldn’t drive. She told me about when you almost bought a bike a couple of years ago, got your license and everything, but never went through with it.”

“Tuition went up, but yeah, that happened. Cheryl… I seriously have no idea how to thank you for this gift.”

“I told you, you’ll thank me by taking me on your dream trip—assuming that is something you still want to do?”

“Baby,” Toni said with a grin, “there is nothing I would love more than to drive you across the country for a summer on the back of my motorcycle.”

When they had finished all of the paperwork and payment, Toni and Cheryl went back outside with Toni’s brand-new motorcycle and pulled on their helmets. Toni put Cheryl in charge of holding the bag of presents, and Cheryl seemed a little nervous about all of this. “It’s been a while since you did this, but you do know how to drive this thing still, right?”

“Um, yes, baby,” Toni assured her with a laugh. “Also—you are very nervous for the person who just decided to bring me here and buy this, _knowing_ that we would have to drive it to Veronica’s after.”

“I just have a lot of trust in you, so you better be a good driver.”

“I am, I promise.” She straddled the seat and then looked at Cheryl. “Well? Get on behind me, baby, and hold on real tight.”

Cheryl obeyed, the bag of present slung over her shoulder, and wrapped her arms tightly around Toni. “Okay.”

“Ready?”

“I guess?”

“I love you, baby.”

“I love you, too, To—oh my god!” Toni laughed as she took off, and Cheryl screamed in surprise. She was clinging to Toni for dear life, but pretty soon, Toni could feel that Cheryl had relaxed a little. Toni herself was grinning as she drove through the streets of LA on her new bike, her heart racing as adrenaline filled her body.

When she reached the apartment building, managed to find a guest parking spot, and then she and Cheryl got off of the bike. “Cheryl,” Toni said softly, “thank you so much for this. I love it.”

“I am so glad,” Cheryl said with a soft smile.

“Did you have fun? Or was it as terrifying as you expected?”

“It was a little terrifying… but mostly it was… exhilarating. And you are a very safe driver.”

Toni grinned, extending her hand to Cheryl, who took it immediately. “I love you.”

“I love you, too. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas. I’ll give you your present tonight, like we planned.”

“Sounds good.”

They made it up to Toni’s best friends’ apartment about ten minutes late—it had taken a while to get the paperwork done—and Toni didn’t even bother knocking, because she could hear Betty and Veronica screaming about Veronica’s engagement ring.

As they walked in, they saw Veronica and Betty standing in the living room, and Sweet Pea, Jughead, and Fangs were in the kitchen, talking about something or another.

“Oh my god, Toni!” Betty exclaimed instantly. “Oh my god, you got to see the proposal? Tell me how beautiful it was!”

“It was really beautiful,” Toni answered.

Veronica grinned. “Apparently my amazing fiancée didn’t want to have a hidden photographer, though—even though Toni was _right there_ , so we don’t have any photo evidence.” Toni noticed Cheryl looked pointedly at her, and apparently so did Veronica. “Uh, right?”

Toni pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at her girlfriend. “Babe, you need to get better at keeping secrets.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Toni chuckled, opening her phone and going to the photos that Cheryl had sent her from last night. “I took a few on Cheryl’s phone. I couldn’t resist.” She passed her phone to Veronica, who immediately gasped.

“Toni, these are beautiful!” Veronica’s eyes were welling with tears.

“Uh oh,” Sweet Pea said, as they guys came over into the living room, “what did you do to my fiancée, Toni?”

Toni gave him an innocent smile. “Don’t get pissed…”

“Look, baby!” Veronica exclaimed, showing Sweet Pea the pictures.

Sweet Pea couldn’t even try to be upset, though, because he immediately got heart eyes when he saw the pictures. “Whoa.”

“I didn’t go overboard,” Toni assured him, “just… it was too exciting to not.”

“We love them,” Veronica told her, “send them to me.”

“I will.”

“Okay,” Veronica said, sniffing and blinking back her unshed tears, “okay, it’s fucking Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone—now that we are done waiting on Toni and Cheryl, we can exchange gifts!”

Toni just now realized that the TV was playing soft Christmas music, and the apartment was definitely decorated for the occasion—a Christmas tree next to the fireplace that rested on the side of the living room, Christmas lights hanging up at top of most of the walls, two stockings hanging on the fireplace. This was why Toni always loved to come to Veronica’s for Christmas.

“For the record,” Toni said, “the reason we were running a little late was because Cheryl was taking me to go and get my Christmas gift.”

Her friends all looked at her curiously. “And? What was it?” Fangs asked curiously.

“A motorcycle,” Toni and Cheryl said at the exact same time, and Sweet Pea and Fangs immediately perked up.

“Shit, really?” Sweet Pea asked. “That’s fucking awesome. Toni has been debating on whether to drop the cash on one literally since we got to Los Angeles.”

“That is one big Christmas gift,” Betty said, but she didn’t really sound like she was judging, which Toni appreciated.

“It will be worth it,” Cheryl insisted.

“Finally going to take that cross-country motorcycle trip that I’ve always wanted to do,” Toni clarified with a smile, “with someone who actually wants to come with me.”

“Aww,” Veronica cooed, “you two are ridiculously adorable.”

At that point, they all sat around the living room and started to exchange friend gifts. None of the couples exchanged gifts—they had made that a rule the first Christmas after Sweet Pea and Veronica started dating, because everyone else in attendance had been single, and they didn’t want anyone feeling left out on Christmas. Now, the only one here not in a relationship was Fangs, but the rule definitely still stood.

The gifts were mostly fun things—Xbox games, some gag gifts, books, things like that. The friend group usually saved more sentimental gifts for birthdays, so they felt more personal to the one person receiving gifts.

After gift giving, Veronica ran into the kitchen and opened her oven and microwave—both of which had been storing her pre-prepared brunch items—and they all sat down in the dining room to have a big Christmas brunch.

The group asked about Toni and Cheryl’s plans in New York, and Cheryl told them about her friends’ tradition to do a big Christmas party with a white elephant gift exchange.

Also, due to the two new additions to the Christmas brunch—Cheryl and Jughead—stories of why none of them spent Christmas with their families were exchanged. Sweet Pea and Fangs were in the same boat as Toni. They didn’t really have family that they were close to. Sweet Pea had a younger brother, but they weren’t super close aside from the fact that they played video games together sometimes. Veronica had a bad relationship with her business tycoon parents, who were definitely also high-key mobsters, and after graduating college and unlocking her last trust fund, she almost completely cut them off. Betty had a decent relationship with her family, but they never did Christmas on Christmas day, because her sister’s husband usually had to work on Christmas, so they did a late celebration every year.

Jughead explained that his family was spread out all over the country—his mom and dad had split when he was in high school, and his mom had taken his little sister with her to Ohio, leaving him and his dad in Chicago. Then, he had moved away for college to LA, and stayed there afterward, and a few years ago, and his little sister had graduated high school and moved away for college also, only she had gone to Texas. It was just not feasible for them all to meet up for the holidays, if any of them even wanted to.

Cheryl was the last to share, and Toni squeezed her girlfriend’s hand under the table, trying to tell her that she didn’t have to share if she didn’t want to. Cheryl didn’t go into specifics, and simply explained to the group that she had cut her parents out of her lives after her brother had passed away. They all gave her their apologies about Jason, and Cheryl just gave them all nods.

Sweet Pea steered the conversation away from the depressing stuff after that, and the group was able to relax and enjoy their meal.

When the brunch wrapped up, everyone wished each other a merry Christmas and then headed out. Toni drove her and Cheryl back to her apartment.

Later that night, after Cheryl had cooked them a small Christmas dinner, Toni got out her present for her girlfriend. It was in a small, red box—one that Toni thought made it obvious that it was jewelry, but she had made sure that the box did not look like a ring box.

“Merry Christmas, babe,” Toni said, smiling as she handed the box to the woman.

Cheryl slowly opened the little box and smiled as she saw the necklace inside. It was a silver chair with an ornate pendant hanging on it. The pendant was shaped like a heart and had a little topaz gem in the center of it. “Oh, Toni, it’s beautiful. It’s topaz.”

“Mmhmm. Oh, and there’s more,” Toni said with a grin, taking the box from Cheryl and reaching for the pendant. She put her thumb on the side of the heart and pressed on the tiny clasp there, popping the locket open.

“It’s a locket,” Cheryl said in surprise, taking the box back and opening the locket all the way. Inside were two photos of the two of them. “Toni… I love it.”

“I’m glad. I didn’t really know what to get you… but I was looking at some jewelry places and when I saw this one, it seemed perfect. Sorry if it’s like… cliché.”

“It’s perfect, Toni. Really.”

Toni helped Cheryl put the locket on, and then the redhead pulled Toni into her lap, bringing their lips together in a deep kiss that they immediately got lost in.

* * *

Boxing day was a travel day—it had been a while since Toni had traveled. Although she’d seen Cheryl a total of six times before this trip, all of those times had been because Cheryl had flown down for a weekend. It was much harder for Toni to make time to go to New York, so this only going to be her second time at Cheryl’s apartment.

The travel day wasn’t too hectic—they packed all of their things in the morning, got a Lyft to LAX, and pretty soon, they were on their flight to JFK. Upon landing, it was already pretty late in the day, so they went straight back to Cheryl’s apartment and ate a quick dinner. Then, Cheryl had wanted to take a bath, and Toni, who was in complete awe of Cheryl’s luxury bathtub, decided to join her.

Toni was pretty sure there was nothing more relaxing than laying in a hot, bubble bath, settled in between her girlfriend’s legs, with Cheryl’s fingers playing with her purple hair and occasionally pressing a soft kiss to her head.

* * *

The day after Boxing Day was the day of the Christmas party with Cheryl’s friends. Toni and Cheryl had each selected a white elephant gift for twenty dollars or less, but not told each other what they had gotten, in the spirit of the game. Cheryl had also prepared for the party by buying a large selection of wines and liquors, and a bunch of Christmas snacks. Apparently, the Christmas party was a potluck style, so everyone would be bringing something for the dinner portion of the party. The party was being hosted at Cheryl’s penthouse, apparently because it was the biggest option—which Toni wasn’t really surprised about.

At around three in the afternoon, there was a knock on Cheryl’s door. Cheryl had just slipped into the bathroom quickly, so Toni went and swung it open to reveal Josie, Melody, and Valerie. “Hey girl!” Josie exclaimed. “Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas, you guys, come on in,” Toni said back brightly, stepping back to let the group in. “How was your guys’ actual Christmas?”

“Mine was great,” Valerie said, “I finally got to see my nieces, who I never get to see because they live in Florida.”

“Yeah, and I went and visited my Grandma up in Toronto,” Melody said with a smile.

“Meanwhile, I went over to my parents’ place and sat through my dad’s critiques on our music,” Josie said with an eyeroll. “But it was good to catch up with my mom—she works in politics, so she’s away a lot.”

“Well, I’m glad you all got to see your families.”

“How was your Friends-mas?” Josie asked with a smile.

“It was awesome,” Toni answered, “but, admittedly, the best part of Christmas day was getting my present from Cheryl.”

“Oh shit, that’s right!” Josie exclaimed. “The motorcycle! Oh my god, was it terrifying to drive?”

Toni smirked. “No, driving motorcycles is not new for me, it’s just been a while.”

Suddenly, Cheryl was coming out from the hallway. “Hello, ladies, merry Christmas!” she greeted.

“Did you ride the motorcycle?” Valerie asked.

“I did.”

“Were you terrified?”

Cheryl scoffed. “No.”

“She totally was,” Toni staged whispered, getting a glare from the redhead.

“ _Anyway_ ,” Cheryl snapped, as Josie snickered, “feel free to set your food items on the bar or put them in the fridge if necessary. We’re putting white elephant gifts on the coffee table.”

The next two people to arrive where Kevin and Moose, followed shortly after by Katy and Reed. Between all of them, they collected a Christmas ham, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, bread rolls, Christmas cookies, and two pies—a full Christmas feast as far as Toni was concerned.

They spent the first part of the party just catching up with everyone—Toni specifically, since some of them hadn’t made it to Toni’s graduation, and Toni had a lot going on ever since she’d graduated too. She told them about her plan to start her own photography business and they were all beyond excited for her.

As the conversation drew to a close, Cheryl offered everyone some mulled wine, and when everyone had a glass, they decided to go ahead and do white elephant.

“Alright,” Katy said, “I am going to take the liberty of having all of our names in a random order generator, because _last year_ , you guys made me go first, and by the time we were finished and I finally got the option to steal, all the other good stuff had already been stolen already.”

“Because some people brought shitty gifts last year,” Josie said, glaring at Kevin.

“Excuse you,” Kevin said with an eyeroll.

Toni chuckled at the group, who all gave in and let Katy randomly generate the order in which they would be playing the game. Melody ended up being first, and she picked a little gift bag off of the coffee table. She opened it with exaggerated suspense and pulled out a fancy Christmas mug with two pairs of fuzzy socks stuff inside. “I’m here for this,” Melody said with a nod.

Reed was second, and he grabbed the one Toni had picked out. She had picked something up from Walmart a few weeks ago, trying to be as random as possible to keep herself from overthinking her pick. Reed unwrapped the box and revealed a Captain Marvel Pop figurine. “You know what, I actually love Captain Marvel, this is great.”

“You’ve trained him well,” Josie teased Katy.

“Um, he did actually love it, my boyfriend is not sexist,” Katy insisted.

“I don’t know why so many guys gave it shit. It was awesome,” Reed insisted.

Katy chuckled. “Okay, next is… Cheryl!”

Cheryl selected one of the other boxed gifts and unwrapped it neatly. Inside of it was a box holding a color changing lightbulb. “Oh,” Cheryl in surprise, looking at the back of the box, “it’s a _smart light_.”

“You can control it from your phone,” Moose said, basically revealing that he was the one who had brought that gift.

“Cool.”

“Who’s next, Katy?”

“Kevin!”

Kevin looked at the present pile, and then around at the group. “Um… sorry, Cher, but I need that color changing light in my life.” Cheryl shrugged and handed the box to him.

“Cher, go ahead and pick another gift, then,” Katy said with a chuckle. Cheryl selected one of the gift bags this time—a red one, to no one’s surprise. As she opened it up, she discovered box of fancy Christmas chocolates, as well as matching red ceramic salt and pepper shakers.

“Leave it to you to somehow pick red salt and pepper shakers,” Toni said with a laugh, getting a small smile from Cheryl.

“Okay,” Katy said, “next is… me!” She grabbed the box that Toni knew was from Cheryl, but she didn’t know what was in it. Katy unwrapped it much less neatly than Cheryl had unwrapped hers and revealed a blue and white decorative scarf. Katy looked less than amused. “Okay, this has got to be from Cheryl. And this scarf is literally from my last year’s winter collection.”

Cheryl smirked. “Before you get all riled up, _Katy_ , there is something wrapped up in the scarf.”

Katy lifted an eyebrow, unfolding the scarf to reveal a Starbucks gift card. “Okay, I guess this helps a little. Technically, though, this gift is worth more than twenty dollars.” Cheryl just shrugged. “You’re ridiculous, Cher.”

“How was I supposed to know you would pull it?”

“Okay, you two,” Josie said with an eyeroll, “who’s next?”

“It’s… Josie!”

Josie let out a hum. “Okay, well I’ll take the scarf from Katy, since she has unlimited K&B designs. Hand it over, girl.”

“Can I keep the gift card?”

“Ha. No.”

Katy handed the gift over to Josie, and then had to pick another gift. She grabbed one of the remaining four gifts and was much more pleased when she unwrapped a snowflake decorated pie pan.

“Okay, next is… Moose!”

Moose decided not to steal anyone’s and instead unwrapped a blue lava lamp. “Okay, I totally like this, but like—these are still relevant?”

“Guess so,” Kevin said with a laugh.

“So, who’s next?” Josie asked. “Is Val or Toni going to have to be last?”

“Next up is… Val! Sorry, Toni, looks like you’re going last.”

“No need to apologize,” Toni said with a chuckle.

Valerie grabbed one of the last two presents, and it was a fancy looking notebook along with a planner for the following year. “Okay, actually, this is stuff that I will actually use.”

“Hopefully Toni isn’t in the mood to steal then,” Katy teased.

Toni laughed. “Hmmm…” She looked around the circle at all of the gifts. There wasn’t anything that especially stuck out to her, so she just grabbed the last gift on the coffee table. It was in a gift bag, so it was easy to reveal the Christmas candle and the little golden candle dish. “Cute,” she said. She was pretty sure that she had never owned a candle before.

“Alright, that brings us back to Mel,” Josie said, looking at her bandmate with a grin. “You going to steal from anyone, or keep your mug and socks?”

“Remember,” Katy added, “you can’t steal anything that’s been stolen already.”

“Eh, I’m happy with my pick.”

“Awesome! Great game, everyone.”

Everyone thanked each other for the gifts and revealed who had bought what.

From there, an early Christmas dinner was consumed, along with a lot of drinks. At first, Cheryl had turned on Christmas music, but at some point, Josie and Katy changed it to dance music, and it really became a full-on party. Toni got a little more drunk than she probably should’ve, and at some point, she climbed on top of Cheryl on the couch and started making out with her. Despite Cheryl not being as drunk as she was, she hadn’t stopped, and they had continued to make out there until the rest of the group started to tease them.

All in all, the Christmas party was a whole lot of fun—it felt like another version of the same sort of thing Toni did with her friends every Christmas.

When everyone had filed out late the evening, Toni and Cheryl didn’t even bother to clean up before falling into bed together. Toni had to fly back to LA the following day, so they needed to make the most of their night together—and that was exactly what they did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shameless fluff for the Christmas chapter. Don't give me shit for the fluff :P  
> Agh there's only 2 more chapters to post and I don't even have anything else ready to post when this is done ;-; love that for me :(  
> I probably won't update until next Sunday, sorry in advance friends! I really do want to have something ready to post by the time I finish posting this story, and since I posted this late I think I may just wait till Sunday for the next chapter. We'll see.
> 
> Sorry again that I didn't answer your comments on the previous chapter! I promise I will on this one! <3 Thank you all, I hope you have a lovely week! x


	4. Let's Do Something Crazy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been a few more crazy months, and speaking of crazy, Cheryl has another crazy suggestion for Toni.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey friends! Sorry this is late :( I had a mini-crisis that felt like a huge crisis yesterday and really just didn't feel up to updating, you know?  
> But here I am today, delivering the second to last chapter of this story/series <3 I hope you enjoy!

In the weeks leading up to Cheryl and Toni’s anniversary, Toni was honestly not doing her best. In early January, she had quit her job bartending, and had since thrown all of her free time into her new business. She got to see Cheryl for Valentine’s Day weekend, but that was it in the four and a half months that had gone by.

As much as Toni was enjoying her new business and all of the gigs she was managing to book, she felt stretched so thin. She worked full time for MRSC still, and there were protests and events multiple times a week for a couple of months. Her weekends were spent out taking pictures for clients, and she spent late nights editing. She still managed to call Cheryl most nights, but there were a few nights where she would be too tired, or she wouldn’t check her phone until it was already too late in New York for Cheryl to feel up to calling.

It was definitely affecting her mental health, but there were perks. For one, Toni was making the most money she ever had in her life. Her portfolio was good enough, as well as her education level, that she was able to charge exactly what she was worth as a photographer, which was quite a decent amount of money per session. She had also brainstormed both with Cheryl and her friends to think of add-ons to her normal photograph sessions, including help with styling, bonus photographs with pets or family members, and more. She had more than enough money to pay her rent, buy all of her groceries, and put a good portion of each month’s income into savings. It helped that she also wasn’t having to pay tuition anymore.

Still, she couldn’t seem to stop working, and it was getting to be a lot. She was seeing her friends less often. Additionally, although she had, of course, always wished that she and Cheryl weren’t long distance, Toni found herself wanting nothing more than to fall asleep next to Cheryl every night.

With everything going on, though, Toni had made sure to take time off of work to go visit Cheryl in New York for their anniversary. She had no gigs scheduled and had already booked the flights. She desperately needed this vacation.

* * *

Toni flew to New York City on the Monday morning of the first week of May to celebrate her anniversary with Cheryl. She honestly could not believe that the two of them had been together for an entire year—that her trip to Italy had been a year ago. It felt unreal, thinking about it. She wondered when she would be able to fully wrap her head around how she had gone to Europe alone, and, essentially, returned with a beautiful woman who she would end up falling in love with.

That was one thing that had definitely not changed in the past few months, despite how stressed Toni had been with work and the two of them talking a little less often. Toni was still so in love with Cheryl, and she knew that the feelings were entirely mutual.

When her plane landed at JFK, Toni already felt like she was back in vacation mode, and she couldn’t even fathom returning to her workload. But she decided not to think about it, because this week was dedicated to her and Cheryl, who had also taken the week off from work. According to Katy, it had been years since Cheryl had taken a full week off of work, and all of Cheryl’s friends were more than encouraging about her finally doing it now.

Toni walked out from baggage claim into the terminal, and immediately her gaze centered on pale skin and fiery red hair—Cheryl was wearing a red, skater style dress with almost sheer tights underneath, and small, red, heeled boots, and her hair was falling freely. Even still a few tens of feet away from her girlfriend, Toni felt herself noticeably relax. After the past five months, only seeing Cheryl once three months ago, she was more than ready for this week.

“Hey,” Toni said with a grin as she approached the woman.

“Hey, beautiful,” Cheryl answered, immediately raising her hand to cup Toni’s cheek as she pulled her in for a soft kiss. When she pulled away, her hand came to Toni’s hair, running her fingers through some of it. “You haven’t touched it up in a while.”

“No,” Toni confirmed—she hadn’t felt like she’d had the time. “I was thinking maybe I’ll switch up the color. Or maybe just add pink to the purple and do a mix sorta thing.”

“You would look gorgeous regardless, mon petit amor.” Toni blushed at Cheryl’s French. “Come, let’s get you some late lunch. I assume you’re hungry?”

“Starving.”

They took a cab to Cheryl’s apartment first, so Toni could drop her bags off, and then went out for some New York style pizza, sitting at a little table in a small, corner pizza shop.

“God, I am so happy to be here,” Toni said, “the past few weeks have been completely exhausting.”

Cheryl nodded, frowning a little. “I know you have been working so hard, baby.”

“Yeah. It’s just been a lot. You know? I love both of my jobs, but it’s getting hard to balance both of them. The income is nice, though, so I feel like I can’t complain.”

“You can still complain.”

Toni shrugged, taking another bite of her pizza. When she swallowed, she added, “Well, I am glad that my income has gone up, because my lease ends in July, and I need to start figuring out what I’m going to do. I kind of hate my apartment.”

Cheryl tilted her head. “Why? I like it, it’s cute.”

“Because I got it super last minute after dumping my ex—and after crashing with Sweets and V for like a month—and it was basically the cheapest place I could find. I only even got it because if I did a sixteen-month lease, I could get like one month free and a discounted rate.”

“Mm. Well, I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”

“Yeah.” Toni shrugged. “So, what have you got planned for this week?”

“Nothing,” Cheryl answered, but Toni didn’t believe her.

“Really? Nothing?”

“Well, a couple of things, but mostly nothing. Honestly. I kept asking Kevin to schedule things for us to do and he _kept telling me no_ ,” Cheryl said with a deep frown. “So I scheduled us a couple of things, but that was it.”

Toni smirked. “What are the few things you planned?”

“I can’t tell you all of them. I can tell you the one for today, though.”

“There’s something planned for today?”

“Yes. In about… thirty minutes,” Cheryl answered, after glancing at her phone to see the time. “But don’t worry, TT. You will not be too tired for this activity.”

Thirty minutes later, Toni understood what Cheryl meant by that—they were getting couple’s massages. Toni had never had a professional massage, and after the past few weeks, she really needed one.

They were led to a room with two massage tables, and their two massage therapists instructed them to undress and lay face down on the table, under the sheets that were laid out. When they walked out, Toni raised an eyebrow at Cheryl. “This is so fancy.”

“You deserve to be pampered,” Cheryl insisted, “especially after how hard you have been working recently.”

“I love you. Thank you.”

“Of course. Now, get naked, TT.”

They stripped out of their clothes and climbed onto their respective massage tables, sliding underneath the blankets and pressing their faces into the little circular resting area. Toni laughed a little at how it felt to have her face resting in the hole, staring down at the ground, and then the door opened a little and their massage therapists asked if they were ready.

When the massage therapist started to work out the knots in her back, Toni was sure she had died and gone to heaven. She had always heard of subscription massage services, but never understood how people could justify spending money to get a massage every month—now, however, she understood.

When they left the spa, with little glasses of lemon water, a little over an hour later, Toni felt like she could use a nice, long nap. She told her girlfriend this, and Cheryl gave her a cheeky smile and a, “Your wish is my command.” They spent the rest of the day in Cheryl’s bed, alternating between napping and exploring each other’s bodies, and only really got up to eat a little while before they both ended up passing out for the night, completely and utterly spent.

* * *

On Tuesday, Cheryl and Toni slept in until noon, which was apparently as much as either of them could do, because around noon, they were both suddenly wide awake. They lazily slipped into the bathroom and showered under Cheryl’s rain style showerhead, and despite how tired and sore her body felt from the massage and all of the sex the previous day, Toni made it a point to push Cheryl right up against the tile of the shower and fuck her, not even ten minutes after they’d gotten out of bed. Cheryl eagerly returned the favor immediately after.

When they were eating their very late breakfast on the living room couch later, at almost two in the afternoon, Toni leaned into her girlfriend and said, “This is so nice. Not having anything to do. Sleeping in. Having a shit ton of sex.”

“And to think, we still have the entire rest of the week.”

“So, what else did you have planned for this week, babe?”

“Not much, actually,” Cheryl admitted. “Well, I made us dinner reservations at my favorite French bistro in New York—for Friday. If that’s okay?”

“Sure, I’m down for some French food.”

“Good,” Cheryl said with a happy sigh. “Mm, other than that, I know that Katy and Josie want to see you at some point, maybe tomorrow night or Saturday?”

“I literally am open to whatever,” Toni insisted, “I really just need time not making any decisions.”

Cheryl chuckled. “Well, then, TT, you have come to the right place.” Toni smiled softly, taking another bite of her yogurt and granola breakfast as she rested her head on her girlfriend’s shoulder.

“Let’s take a nap after we eat.”

“Why do you want to spend all of your time with me sleeping?”

“Because I’m tired.”

“You don’t need a nap already, Toni. We’ve only been awake for two hours.”

“Fine. But you owe me a nap.”

Cheryl chuckled. “Mm. Je t'aime, ma chérie.”

“I love you, too.”

* * *

The rest of Tuesday was spent relaxing, and they ended up turning on a movie that Toni fell asleep halfway through. Cheryl teased her about it for the rest of the night, but Toni knew that she had just really sleep deprived herself the past few weeks.

On Wednesday morning, when Cheryl woke her up just after nine, she groaned and rolled over, looking into her girlfriend’s dark eyes. “I’m awake.”

“Good. You really should not sleep this entire week away, baby.” Toni just sighed. “You really are so tired.”

“I really fucked myself over,” Toni admitted, “the past few weeks, I mean. I spent two to three nights out at campaign events or on the streets taking pictures. I spent all of the rest of my nights editing photos that I spent all weekend taking. And of course, I worked all during business hours. I guess I didn’t realize how hard that would all be on me after the fact.”

Cheryl pursed her lips for a moment, and then asked softly, “Have you thought about… going full time with your business? And leaving MRSC?”

Toni frowned—she had thought about it, but she didn’t see how she could do it. “It would be hard to transition away from having a salary, even if I can make good money with TBT. If I have a bad month, what if I can’t afford rent?” Cheryl frowned as well. “Plus… I love MRSC. I love doing something that makes a difference.”

“You can always volunteer at MRSC or other nonprofits. They are always looking for volunteers, aren’t they? You don’t have to stop participating.”

“That’s true, you’re right… but the money thing is still hard.”

Cheryl looked like she wanted to say something, and Toni was preparing herself to have to turn down an offer of money from her girlfriend, but Cheryl just brought her hand up to Toni’s hair and tousled it a little. “You’ll figure something out, Toni.”

“Yeah. It’s just, like… I can’t picture going back to how I’ve been living the past couple of months. I hate that it got in the way of seeing my friends and talking to you every single day, and I hate that it’s been wearing on my mental and physical health.”

“I know, baby,” Cheryl said softly. “I know.”

The conversation drew to a close there, but Toni had a feeling that it wasn’t over. But they needed to get out of bed and get food in their stomachs, so for now, it was the end of the discussion.

Wednesday was spent strolling around New York City, stopping in a few stores and shopping around, and getting lunch out at a café. Then, they went over to Katy and Reed’s apartment for the evening, where they also met up with Kevin, Moose, Josie, and a girl that Josie had apparently been seeing for a couple of months. Toni felt bad that she didn’t remember hearing about it, because Cheryl must’ve told her, but she did her best to hide her forgetfulness as she introduced herself.

Katy, Josie, and Kevin asked Toni all about how her life was going down in Los Angeles, and then she asked them how things had been for them. She felt a weird vibe from all of Cheryl’s friends, like maybe they were all thinking something—the same thing—but just not mentioning it. She couldn’t figure it out, and she didn’t want to outright ask about it, so she let it be.

Wednesday night, despite how tired Toni had been when she woke up that morning, Toni and Cheryl spent a couple of hours rolling around in Cheryl’s bed. It felt so amazing to be able to just fuck her girlfriend whenever she wanted, and then to be able to fall asleep next to her. Toni could so get used to this.

* * *

On Thursday, Cheryl surprised Toni by taking her to the Museum of Modern Art, and they spent a good few hours walking through the many exhibits and looking around at each and everything. Afterwards, Cheryl took Toni around to spots that she thought were pretty scenic—despite how drab New York City could sometimes feel, Cheryl said. Toni had never thought New York City felt drab, but she happily viewed Cheryl’s favorite spots, stealing her girlfriend’s fancy phone to take nice pictures every now and then.

* * *

Friday was Toni’s third to last day in New York, and her brain was starting to remind her of what was coming up on Monday—it would be back to her normal life, talking to Cheryl on the phone hopefully once per day, with scattered texts in between. Late nights and early mornings, and busy weekends. Toni loved both of her jobs, but she hated that she was starting to dread her own day-to-day.

That was why she looked forward to dinner out with Cheryl that night. She never went out to restaurants in LA unless it was with her friends—which wasn’t very often—or for work.

They went to a pretty fancy French restaurant, and it was a sweet date filled with great food and wine, and Cheryl ended up telling Toni all about her trips to France as a little kid—with Jason. It was the most Toni had ever heard her girlfriend talk about her late brother, and it brought a smile to her face as she realized how much that meant Cheryl trusted her. From what she had gathered in the last year, Cheryl rarely talking about her brother to anyone, even her best friends. She was honored that Cheryl felt so comfortable with her and was glad that that feeling was mutual.

When they got back to Cheryl’s apartment that night, Toni could feel tension in the air between them, and she could not identify why it was there. As Cheryl set her purse down and fiddled with her phone, Toni furrowed her eyebrows and decided to just ask, “Hey, you okay? You’ve been kinda quiet since we left the restaurant.”

“I’m fine,” Cheryl assured her. “Want to watch something?”

“Not really,” Toni answered, “come on, what’s up?”

“Nothing, really,” Cheryl insisted. “I’m fine, Toni.”

Toni nodded, sitting down on the couch and spreading her legs out across it. “Alright, if you say so. I guess we can watch something.”

So, they put on some random TV show, and Cheryl sat where Toni’s feet were, pulling her legs into her lap. They sat in silence for a while, but Toni wasn’t watching the show—she was watching Cheryl, who also didn’t seem to be watching. She was very clearly wrapped up in her own thoughts, and Toni wanted to know what was going on.

“Baby,” Toni said finally, “what is on your mind?”

Cheryl looked at her girlfriend. “C'est fou…”

“What?” Toni asked, looking between her girlfriend’s eyes.

“It’s crazy.”

“What is crazy?”

“What I’m about to ask you. I’m scared that I’ve asked too many crazy things, and that this time, you won’t say yes.”

Toni was a little concerned now, and she grabbed the TV remote to turn off the device before scooting closer to her girlfriend. “What is your ‘crazy’ question, Cheryl?”

At this rate, Toni was half expecting Cheryl to propose to her, and her heart was pounding inside her chest. Cheryl took in a deep breath, and looked down at her hands for a moment, before looking back up and meeting Toni’s gaze. “I miss you, Toni… I miss you so much every day. It’s so hard for me to watch you work so hard, and not be able to rub your shoulders after a long day or curl up next to you at night.” Toni frowned, definitely understanding what Cheryl meant. “I love you Toni, more than I thought I could love anyone. I have never been able to date someone for this long and still have them love and trust me—”

“I love you so much, Cher,” Toni interrupted, “and I’ve trusted you basically ever since three days after we met.”

Cheryl smiled. “I know, TT. I know…” She took another breath, and Toni started to glance around, wondering if there was a ring hiding somewhere. “Toni, you and your happiness is so important to me, so I understand if you won’t say yes to what I want to ask you… I wasn’t even sure if I would end up asking you, but you mentioned that your lease is ending soon and…” Toni lifted an eyebrow, her heart racing even faster as she started to realize what Cheryl was getting at. “Toni, would you… would you want to move to New York?”

Toni opened her mouth to answer, but no words came out. She had really not been expecting Cheryl to ask her this, and if she’d asked her a couple of months ago, Toni’s answer would’ve been a hard no. But something was tugging at her chest—more than just her desire to be with Cheryl—wanting her to say yes. “W-what?” Toni asked, trying to focus.

“My lease also ends in July, coincidentally, and I can renew it, or… we could get a place together,” Cheryl whispered, “somewhere perfect for both of us. You could have a photography studio, I can have an office, and the space could be both of ours.”

“Cheryl… I… I want to, but what about my job?” Toni asked.

“You could keep doing your business here.”

“Well what about the clientele I’ve built up in LA? And what about MRSC?” Toni asked.

Cheryl let out a breath, and Toni had a feeling that she had prepared for these questions. “I was thinking… your friends will still be in LA. We could go every now and then and see them, and you could schedule sessions in advance for when we’re there. You could be like… a traveling photographer. And in the meantime, you can build up a clientele in NYC. As for MRSC, there are plenty of organizations you could volunteer or work at in NYC too, baby. And you’ve said yourself that doing both fulltime is getting to be too hard.”

“But… without working two jobs, there is no way I could afford half of the rent of an apartment like this, Cheryl. I don’t even know if I could afford it with two jobs, or even three,” Toni said, feeling sadness in her chest as she admitted it. Maybe it would be the ideal situation if she could move in with Cheryl in the next couple of months, but financially, how could she swing it?

“Baby,” Cheryl said slowly, “you know that I would never offer you money, because I know that you wouldn’t accept it. But… what if we didn’t split rent right in half? What if we split it proportional to our incomes? I would never offer to pay all of the rent or anything like that, but Toni… this is going to happen eventually, right? We can’t keep being long distance forever, I can’t take it, and I know you can’t take it.”

Toni took in a breath.

“And I’m not saying that if you say no right now that I can’t keep doing long distance, that’s not what I’m saying. Just… if you want to say no right now, we have to at least start having this conversation. Because I _love_ you, Toni, so much, and I can’t keep waiting months to see you for a handful of days.”

Toni nodded, gears turning in her head as she thought about everything Cheryl was saying. The rent thing made sense, the job thing made sense—sounded appealing, also, to be a traveling photographer. The idea of sharing a place with Cheryl, both with their own spaces and with _their_ bedroom. Her heart was racing, her mind working on overtime, as she found herself grabbing and squeezing Cheryl’s hand.

“Okay. Yes.”

Cheryl’s eyes widened in surprise. “What?”

“Yes. Let’s do it.”

“Wha—really?” Cheryl asked. “You… you’re sure?”

Toni took in a deep breath. “It’s going to take some getting used to, and we’re going to have to iron out the details pretty quickly… but yes. I want to do it.”

Cheryl was suddenly tackling Toni in a huge hug, and Toni felt her heart swell. She was going to wake up next to Cheryl every day and fall asleep next to her every night. She could meet Cheryl out for lunch in the middle of the workday. She would probably wake up to breakfasts in bed on the weekends, and they could have sex literally whenever they wanted. Toni could work as a fulltime, self-employed photographer. She may not be able to see her friends as often, but she knew that that would be okay. Ultimately, Cheryl was right. Eventually, one of them would need to move, and it only made sense that it be Toni—she wasn’t tied down by any business, especially since she was just now getting her photography business off the ground.

This was going to be a good decision, she knew, even if it was scary now.

She couldn’t wait to get used to being with Cheryl every day.

* * *

Telling Toni’s friends about their decision had been tough, unlike telling Cheryl’s friends, because the whole group of them had already known that Cheryl was probably going to ask her to move in. No, telling Toni’s friends was a completely different situation, which was why Toni waited until the following week, when she was back home in Los Angeles—a city that would only be her home for a couple more months.

She called a meeting with her friends at Veronica’s apartment, since hers was not really great for hosting guests. As drove her motorcycle the familiar journey to the apartment, she felt her heart clenching. She would be sad to leave Los Angeles, and although she hadn’t been able to spend a lot of time enjoying the beach or the city itself in a while, she had had a lot of really good times here.

When she entered her best friends’ apartment, there were a bunch of printouts of cards and some other things scattered on the kitchen counter, and Veronica and Sweet Pea were staring down at all of them. “Oh, Toni!” Veronica exclaimed. “Come help us pick what do use for our wedding invitations?”

Toni smiled a little, walking over to her friends and looking at the options. She pointed to one that was black and white and very elegant looking. “This is totally your vibe.”

“What about my vibe?” Sweet Pea demanded.

Toni shrugged. “Sure, it’s yours, too.”

Veronica snickered, and purposefully separated Toni’s pick from the rest of the options. “Don’t forget, babe, Toni is my maid of honor, so she has to support me more than you. Sorry, not sorry.”

“Yeah, I never thought about the fact that both of our best friends are Toni,” Sweet Pea muttered, “and that this would prove to be a problem with the best man, maid of honor shit.”

Toni chuckled, moving over to the couch. “You have Fangs,” she told Sweet Pea with a smile. “But yeah, Veronica called dibs too fast in January.”

“I know, I know,” Sweet Pea said with an eyeroll.

“Speaking of,” Veronica said, “there is going to be so much for you to help me with soon, T.”

Toni felt her heart clench again, and she thought about all of the things that the maid of honor was supposed to help the bride with. She was pretty sure she could do most of them from afar, and that she would be able to make plenty of trips back to Los Angeles for all of the events. It would be tricky, but she would figure it out.

“Whoa, you good, Tiny?” Sweet Pea asked. “You look like, super pale all of the sudden.”

Toni cleared her throat. “Where’re Fangs and Betty?”

“I’m sure they’re almost here,” Veronica insisted. “What’s up, Toni? What’s this meeting about? Is everything okay with you and Cheryl? You haven’t said much about your week in New York since you got back.”

Toni took in a deep breath. “Yeah no, things with me and Cheryl are great, that’s not… um, I mean, it is sorta about Cheryl but… can we just wait until Betty and Fangs get here?”

There was a knock on the door, and Sweet Pea went over to let Betty in. “Hey, everyone,” she greeted brightly, “so—what’s the occasion?”

“We’re waiting on Fangs before we find out,” Veronica answered with a laugh, but Toni could tell that she sounded a little stressed.

Thankfully, Fangs arrived only a few moments later, and when everyone was sitting in the room, all eyes focused on Toni, the purple haired woman took in a deep breath and folded her hands in her lap. “You guys… you know that I love you all, right?”

“Of course we do, Tiny,” Fangs said, clearly concerned.

“Yeah, obviously. Don’t you remember your graduation?” Veronica asked with a chuckle. “Toni, whatever it is that you have to say… just say it.”

Toni nodded. “While I was in New York last week, Cheryl… she asked me—”

“To marry you?” Betty exclaimed, her eyes widening.

Toni blinked. “No.”

“Oh.”

“Shut up, B,” Veronica teased the blonde.

“No, she asked me if I wanted to move to New York… and the two of us get a place there.”

“Shit,” Sweet Pea breathed out, “wow… and you said yes?”

“Yes,” Toni answered.

“Wow,” Betty said, but Toni met Veronica’s gaze. The Latina didn’t look too caught off guard, but she did look like she was processing.

“Yeah. You know, at first, I thought there was no way I could do that, but… the truth is that I’m ready. I can’t do this long-distance thing forever, and neither can Cheryl, and I mean, she’s twenty-seven, I’m going to be twenty-five soon. And I’ve been completely overworking myself lately, and I think it’s time that I stop working at MRSC. I still want to volunteer and help the community, but it’s time that I focus on my dream, you know? And I can do that from New York.”

“I mean, of course I support you, T,” Sweet Pea said, “but what about LA? And everything here?”

“I am going to miss it a lot, and I’m going to miss all of you guys so much. But I’ve barely even seen most of you, except Fangs, of course, the past few months, because I’ve been working so damn much. And Cheryl suggested an idea of like… I could incorporate being a traveling photographer into my branding. I can plan a week in LA every now and then and book a few gigs and hang out with all of you. And Ronnie,” Toni said, calling her friend the nickname she rarely used, “I am going to be able to take care of all of my maid of honor duties, okay? I’ll be here for your dress shopping next month; I won’t be leaving until my lease ends in July. Then, for anything else that you need me here for, I’ll be here.”

“I don’t want to pry,” Fangs said, “but… are you going to be fine, like, financially.”

“I mean, I’m not going to go into the details of all of that,” Toni said, “but yes. Look… I know that in the past, you guys have questioned some of my decisions, and I know that this is one huge decision… but I really believe that it’s the best one for me and Cheryl. I love you guys so much, but I love Cheryl, too. And when Sweets proposed to V, you know I joked that it was about time, they aren’t getting any younger.” Sweet Pea chuckled. “I mean, I’m not getting any younger either. And after Sara… I know what I want and what I need, and… Cheryl is that.”

Finally, Veronica sucked in a breath, and then reached for Toni’s hands. “Toni Topaz, I love you so fucking much.”

“I love you too, V.”

“You are going to be a fucking badass photographer in New York City, hanging out with your gorgeous girlfriend and her awesome friends all the time, and you’re going to start your life with her, and I am so happy for you. But if you miss my bachelorette party, I _will_ kill you.”

Toni let out a relieved laugh when Veronica’s lips spread into a grin, and she grabbed the woman in a tight hug. “I would never dream of missing it, V.” She pulled out of the hug and added, “Plus… I’m going to be working on my own schedule now. No strict nine to five. I won’t miss a single thing. With the amount I’m going to want to visit you guys, not only am I going to become a pro at flying, I’m also probably going to rack up a shit ton of miles to cash in for free flights.”

Her friends laughed at that, and then they all suddenly began to envelope her in a giant group hug on the couch. “We’ll miss you, Toni,” Betty insisted, “but we are so happy for you.”

Toni laughed, feeling her eyes fill with tears as she hugged her friends back. She felt so lucky to have such supportive friends.

* * *

The next two months were spent with Toni feeling even more overworked than before her and Cheryl’s anniversary week off, because not only was Toni still working two jobs for all of May and June, she was also planning the logistics of the move.

Thankfully, Cheryl was taking care of most of it, especially since she was in NYC. She sent apartment listings to Toni, who would look at them and give her feedback, and then Cheryl would go and actually look at the apartment, and they would talk on the phone afterward to go over the pros and cons. It felt so weird to be doing this again—about three years after the last time Toni had moved in with someone—but it was also super exciting.

Cheryl had gotten Kevin to arrange a moving truck to pick up Toni’s things—which wasn’t much but was going to include her motorcycle—and also to schedule Toni’s flight out the following day. Toni was planning to crash at Veronica and Sweet Pea’s place for her last night in Los Angeles, after sending off the moving truck and handing in her keys to her landlord.

Cheryl also kept sending her listings for furniture online, to which Toni would ask why Cheryl’s current furniture wasn’t good enough. Toni didn’t want to buy things just for the sake of it, but she did appreciate the sentiment when Cheryl said that she wanted to make sure that Toni felt like it was her space, too.

One thing that Toni gladly took on the task of doing was ordering a few things for her future photography studio, including a desk for her to do her editing at, and a white backdrop for pictures.

Also during all of the craziness, Toni took one day completely off of everything to go with dress shopping with Veronica and Betty. Toni and Betty sat on a little bench as Veronica tried on dress after dress. Toni had a hard time critiquing any of them, because her best friend really just looked good in anything. When Veronica put on her favorite dress, though, Toni nearly cried at how happy and gorgeous her best friend looked—Veronica made sure to tease her for being such a mom, but Toni knew that Veronica appreciated it.

* * *

When all of the details had been ironed out, it was just a matter of execution. On the last day of Toni’s lease, a moving truck arrived outside of her apartment building. She had the driver help her load up her few boxes of things and her motorcycle—all of the furniture had been donated or sold already, and she had thrown out her old mattress after waking up that morning.

When the moving truck left, she made her way to her landlord’s office and turned in her keys, signing her move out form, and called an Uber to take her to her best friends’ place.

She spent the whole day just chilling with her best friends, playing games with Sweet Pea and then attempting to help Veronica cook some food for the three of them for dinner. They stayed up late talking about the wedding plans and everything, and then Toni crashed on their couch for the night.

The next morning was it. Veronica and Sweet Pea drove her to the airport, where Fangs, Joaquin, Betty, and Jughead were all waiting to surprise her. They gave her hugs and well wishes, and she promised she would see them all soon, and then it was off to her plane for her.

* * *

Landing in New York City, knowing that this was not a temporary stay, felt very strange. When she had moved away from New York state, she had told herself she would never live here again, although she had been specifically referring to Kingston. New York City felt like a totally different place than the rest of the state, but it still felt weird that this was her home now. In fact, she had started to think of it more like Cheryl was her home, and New York was just the place where they were going to settle down for now.

Cheryl was waiting for her in the terminal at JFK, and Toni couldn’t resist throwing her arms around her girlfriend and letting her squeeze her tightly. Cheryl knew how weird this was for Toni—it was weird for Cheryl, too—because they had made sure to talk a lot about this over the past two months.

But they were ready, and when Toni pulled away from Cheryl, the redhead asked, “Ready to go and see the new place?”

“Definitely.”

Toni’s stuff hadn’t yet arrived—it was due to show up the following day—but since Toni wasn’t contributing any furniture, Cheryl had gone ahead and gotten the place mostly set up. She continually reminded Toni that if she didn’t like anything, they could rearrange it or do whatever she wanted, but Toni had a feeling that she wasn’t going to be picky.

When she saw the apartment, it literally took her breath away.

It was actually a little more cozy in the main area that Cheryl’s previous apartment—the living room was still pretty big, and the same sectional that had been in Cheryl’s living room filled most of the space, along with the rug, coffee table, giant mounted TV, and the console sitting below it. The dining room was smaller, and the big table brought from Cheryl’s old place was almost too big for it, but it worked. On the far wall of the dining room and kitchen were huge windows, similar to the ones in Cheryl’s old place, overlooking the city. This apartment was also a penthouse, and as bougie as it was, Toni had to admit that the view was pretty amazing.

The kitchen was about as big as Cheryl’s had been, and it was newly updated and had marble countertops. Toni was already in love with the apartment, but when Cheryl guided Toni through their master bedroom—which was much less red than Cheryl’s bedroom had been—with the king sized bed and matching dressers and vanities filling it up, Toni felt overwhelmed with happiness. This was _their_ space.

Their bathroom was just as modern and impressive as Cheryl’s old one, and Toni could already picture all of the bubble baths she and her girlfriend would be having.

The last two rooms of the apartment shared a bathroom—like jack and jill bedroom, but neither of them were being used as a bedroom. One of them was Cheryl’s office, set up exactly the same as her old office, and the other one was Toni’s new photography studio.

Her studio actually blew her away, there was a large corner desk all set up for her, as well as the white backdrop hanging against the opposite wall. Some fancy lights were also set up by the backdrop, and there was an empty shelf in the room that Cheryl told her was available for whatever she wanted it for.

Toni couldn’t believe it—she was here, in her new apartment, in New York City, with her girlfriend. When she turned to look at Cheryl, after the grand tour had concluded, she absolutely melted, and wrapped the woman in a tight hug.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you, too,” Cheryl said, sounding a little surprised.

“What?”

“Just… I guess I underestimated how emotional this part was going to be.”

“I’m just so excited to be here with you, Cheryl, for us to have our space,” Toni said, breathing out and pulling away from the woman. “I know you said asking me to move here with you was crazy… but this feels right, baby.”

“It feels right to me, too,” Cheryl agreed. “No one has ever made me feel as happy as you make me, TT. It was getting so hard to be so far away from you.”

“I know.” Cheryl ran her fingers through Toni’s hair, and tilted her head she smiled softly.

“You hungry?”

“Definitely.”

“Wanna take a look at our newly stocked fridge?”

“Ooh, yes please.”

Yeah. Toni could definitely get used to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's play: how many ways can Tori fit "could get used to this" into one chapter? Jeeez, I almost took a couple of them out reading this back lmao!  
> Life is crazy. I haven't written a thing for Choni in like 1.5 weeks, but I'm still intending to work on and finish What A Time Toni POV. Fingers crossed I can do it. I don't see any writing in my near future though. I have sooo much to do for school, it's not even funny.  
> Sending positive vibes out to all of you, thank you so much for being here to enjoy this chapter with me <3 Well, I hope you enjoyed it anyway. <3 I appreciate all of the kudos and comments, and I just appreciate you all for reading at all. So thank you. And I'll see you next Sunday for the final chapter.


	5. If You Never Try, You'll Never Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey lovelies! This is the last chapter of this series and I am emotional about posting this ending! I have gotten to interact with so many more people on Twitter thanks to this story and I feel closer with the Choni fandom than ever, but I'm super disappointed that I don't have anything ready to post immediately following this story. School is absolutely super hectic right now, so there's a good chance I won't have anything ready until December or January. Ugh, I hope I can finish something sooner, but we'll see.
> 
> Ugh, I'm getting ahead of myself, you guys haven't even read this chapter yet! I blame the wine I've been drinking lmao (I really needed it, I did like 6 hours of work today and it's Sunday!)
> 
> Enjoy the last chapter friends <3

It was May 6th, the next year. Just about two years since she and Cheryl had decided to get together despite the distance, and a year since Toni had decided to move across the country to live with her girlfriend. Almost ten months since she actually had moved to New York City, and since then, so much had happened.

Takes by Topaz, Toni’s photography business, had gotten fairly popular, she regularly had all kinds of gigs. It especially spiked when she flew back to Los Angeles to take official engagement photos for her best friends—after Sweet Pea finally agreed to it—and Veronica forced everyone she’d ever known to share Toni’s photographs. Her studio was also getting use, mostly from wannabe Instagram stars who just wanted some cute pictures on a plain white background. Toni found herself making a decent amount of income, more than enough to pay her portion of the rent. Cheryl was definitely paying more, but Toni had gotten to the point where it didn’t really bother her.

On top of the booming business, her relationship with Cheryl had gotten even more amazing ever since they had moved in with each other. For one, being able to have sex pretty much every day had done wonders for her stress, but also it was just so nice to _talk_ to her girlfriend, and curl up next to her at night.

It was the little things that Toni loved the most. Cheryl woke up earlier than Toni on weekdays, since she usually went into her office for K&B, and she would make Toni’s usual yogurt and granola breakfast and bring it to her in bed before leaving. On the weekends, Toni would try and get up early to do the same for her girlfriend, but oftentimes, Cheryl would still beat her to it.

They spent Halloween in New York, where Katy hosted her annual Halloween Party—it was the biggest party Toni had ever been to. Not only were all of Cheryl’s and Katy’s friends there, but people they worked with, including models and designer friends, and everyone was allowed two plusses. It was also a costume party, and there had basically been an open bar. It had been a _lot_ of fun.

For Thanksgiving, they had gone back to Los Angeles and spent a few days with Toni’s friends. Fangs had found himself a boyfriend by then, who had joined them all, and it had been so nice to see all of her friends.

Not that that was the only time Toni had gone back to Los Angeles, though, she’d ended up going back pretty much once every two months or so, especially considering Veronica’s wedding. It was scheduled for February, so toward the end of the year, Toni had found herself pretty occupied with helping Veronica get things together—on top of all the work her wedding planner was doing.

Toni’s main job, she’d learned, was to plan the best bachelorette party she could. Thankfully, Veronica’s budget for the party was pretty huge, so Toni didn’t have much issues. She planned a party that involved Veronica’s favorite club in LA _and_ the beach, another thing Veronica loved about LA. The party was small, but Veronica didn’t want it to just be her, Betty, and Toni, so she invited someone from work, and extended the invitation to Cheryl, Katy, and Josie, if they were interested. Everyone was very much interested, and so in January, they all flew out and had a hell of a bachelorette party.

Before that, for Christmas, they ended up doing the same sort of thing as the previous year, splitting it between Los Angeles and New York, so that they could see everyone of the important people in their lives. It was a few days after Christmas that Toni had been thinking about how neither her, Cheryl, nor either of her best friends had any relationship with their parents, and she thought about her conversation with her dad on her graduation day. That’s when she’d decided that she wanted to go and see him.

Cheryl went with her, which Toni immensely appreciated, and she saw her father for the first time in about six years. They sat in the living room of his beat-up little trailer and caught up their lives, and Toni was really happy to hear that her dad had been consistently sober for the past two years. He seemed to be doing a lot better than she had ever remembered him, and she decided that she would call him once a month to catch up. After they did that for a while, then maybe they could see each other more often. She was, of course, bracing herself for him to just disappear, but she didn’t think it would hurt her all too much if he did. It would be disappointing, but Toni had a real family in her friends, and her father was just someone who helped raise her.

Cheryl had been so supportive the entire time, and Toni was sure that she had fallen infinitely more in love with the redhead in that moment.

In February, Cheryl and Toni took a full week off to fly to Los Angeles for Veronica and Sweet Pea’s wedding. Thankfully, Veronica only became a minor bridezilla around her wedding day, but it was enough of a change that Toni would definitely make fun of her later for it.

At the beginning of the week, four days before the wedding, two people appeared at Veronica and Sweet Pea’s doorstep: Hiram and Hermione Lodge. Whereas Toni had embraced the parent she had basically cut ties with years before, Veronica’s parents had heard about her wedding, and had decided to try and butt into it.

Veronica heard them out, and then, rightfully so, spent about a day being angry at them. Still, she ended up telling them that they were free to attend the wedding, but that neither of them would be walking her down the aisle or handing her off to Sweet Pea. She would be doing it herself.

They did the rehearsal the day before the wedding and had a big rehearsal dinner. Toni gave a little toast before the dinner started, saving her big speech for the reception, and they all tried to ignore their nerves for Veronica and Sweet Pea’s big day.

On the day, Toni was pretty sure that she finally understood what it was like to work Kevin’s job. She found herself running around trying to communicate with everyone to make sure everything was okay. Eventually, though, the wedding planner insisted that she go be with the bride, and Toni agreed. She and Betty were Veronica’s only bridesmaids—and Sweet Pea only had Fangs and Joaquin as groomsmen. They had decided to keep it pretty small, but it meant that there were fewer people to try and help keep Veronica calm.

In the end, though, Veronica walked herself down the aisle to her fiancée, they said disgustingly sweet vows to each other, and were wed just a few days before Valentine’s Day. The reception was one giant party, and Toni gave her big, sappy, yet funny, speech. Veronica threw her bouquet to all of the unmarried women at the party, and Betty was the one to catch it—resulting in Jughead getting pointed looks from all of their friends. Sweet Pea shot Veronica’s garter out into the crowd of unmarried guys, and somehow missed so badly that it went over all of them and landed practically in Toni’s hands. Toni couldn’t help but smirk as she shot it back to him, giving the guys another chance.

Veronica allowed her father to have an unofficial father daughter dance with her, and the evening ended up going really smoothly, even with Veronica’s parents there. And at the end of the reception, Sweet Pea swept Veronica off of her feet and carried her into the back of a limo as all of the guests blew bubbles and threw little handfuls of confetti, and it was off to Barcelona for their honeymoon for them.

It was after the wedding, when Cheryl and Toni were back in New York and Veronica and Sweet Pea were away for their honeymoon, that Toni decided that she wanted that.

She wanted the big cheesy wedding, with stupid white dresses and fancy wedding invitations, with silly, sappy speeches and vows and bouquets. She also really wanted to have a big, fancy honeymoon so they could travel again, and have another trip with her girlfriend, one where the redhead didn’t have to work the whole time.

In March, Cheryl had suggested just that kind of trip, and had asked Toni if she wanted to go back to Italy, or if she wanted to try France. Toni had chosen Italy, because after starting to fantasize about marrying her girlfriend, she had apparently decided that Paris would be their honeymoon. Cheryl had yet to know about this idea, but Toni was pretty set on it.

They planned the trip for their second anniversary, which was why Toni was standing out on the large balcony of their hotel suite, overlooking the rocky beach and coast of Amalfi, Italy.

This was the last night of their trip—they were taking a car back to Naples in the morning and flying back to NYC. The past few days had been a blend of relaxing in Amalfi, exploring the little town and trying a bunch of food—and drinking a lot of limoncello, which Toni was obsessed with—and also going to nearby tourist attractions, including Pompeii and Herculaneum. In the former, they saw the shapes of people buried in volcanic ash, which was absolutely terrifying and somehow also super interesting, and old, ash covered houses. In Herculaneum, it was a little less obvious that the town had been covered by ash, but it was pretty crazy to hear that the coast had once been right up next to the town, when now it was barely in view.

Toni had taken a lot of pictures so far on their trip, and now her camera was set on the little table on the balcony. She had already checked the lighting, and then turned it on to time-lapse mode. It had been taking pictures every ten seconds for about a minute now, and Toni was still waiting for her girlfriend to come out to the balcony.

Finally, Cheryl stepped outside. “Sorry,” she apologized, “I was getting all the limoncello boxed up so we can easily check it tomorrow.”

Toni looked over her shoulder at her girlfriend, who was wearing a short red dress, black accessories. She also had on her favorite leather jacket—which she had really stolen from Toni. Toni had worn a black dress with her favorite silver accessories. The two of them had just gotten back from getting dinner and buying a couple of bottles of limoncello. “That’s okay.”

“It’s nice out here,” Cheryl said softly. “You okay?”

“Yep,” Toni answered, but the truth was that her heart was pounding. Her black dress wasn’t super tight and form-fitted, it was looser around her waist, and it actually had pockets—something Toni had been super excited about for this occasion. Her right hand was resting in her pocket already. She was trying not to seem obvious. “I’m okay. You?”

“Perfetto,” Cheryl answered in Italian. “This has been an amazing week, TT. I’m glad we did this.”

“Me too, baby,” Toni agreed—and suddenly, she knew this was the moment. “Thank you so much for this. It’s so crazy that we met in Italy two years ago, and now here we are…”

“Of course,” Cheryl said with a soft smile.

“Seriously, Cher. You changed my life two years ago. You quite literally swept me off of my feet, surprised me and made me feel so full of life for the first time in months. And you have never stopped making me feel so full of life and love,” Toni whispered, taking a step closer to her girlfriend and extending her free hand for Cheryl to grab. “And moving in with you last year… was the best decision. I have gotten to see literally every part of you by now, and everything I’ve seen has made me fall even more in love with you, baby. You changed my life two years ago, so, Cheryl, today I want to change your life forever.”

Cheryl’s eyes widened as Toni, in one swift movement, pulled the ring box out of her pocket and dropped down to one knee, opening the little red box. “Toni…”

“Cheryl Blossom, I love you so much, and I want to make sure you are filled with life and love for the rest of our lives, baby,” Toni whispered. “Would you marry me?”

Cheryl had tears streaking her face, but her lips were spread into a grin. “Oh my—Toni, of course! Of course, I will!” Toni grinned, taking the ring out of the box and sliding it on her _fiancée’s_ finger. Cheryl looked down at the diamond on the ring, and the rubies that were encrusted along the band. “Toni, it’s beautiful…”

Toni could tell that Cheryl wanted to say something else, so she stood up and grabbed her girlfriend’s hands. “What is it, my love?”

Cheryl bit down on her lip, sniffed and wiped her tears away, and then she reached into the pocket of the jacket she was wearing, pulling out a black ring box, which she opened to reveal a ring of her own. “I was literally going to ask you, too.”

“Oh my god,” Toni said with a groan, “how did we become those people?”

“Probably because we planned a trip to Amalfi, Italy for our two-year anniversary, plus we were both just at your best friends’ wedding a few months ago,” Cheryl said with a light laugh. “Well… Miss Toni Topaz, would you do the honor of allowing me to marry you?”

Toni grinned. “Of course, Cheryl, yes.” Cheryl took Toni’s ring out of the box and slid it onto Toni’s ring finger. It was a simple silver band with four diamonds in the center. “I love it, baby. I love you.”

“I love you, Toni,” Cheryl whispered back. “We’re engaged.”

“We’re engaged.”

“Toni Topaz, how did I get so lucky to meet you that day in Rome?”

“I have no idea, babe, but I am so glad you came to get that drink at the bar that night, and that you _didn’t_ intimidate me enough to keep me from totally eavesdropping on your conversation,” Toni teased, wrapping her arms around Cheryl’s waist and not hesitating to bring their lips together in a celebratory kiss. They got lost in each other’s lips for a few moments, until they broke apart in need of oxygen.

Their faces just centimeters from each other, Cheryl whispered, “I guess the shitty thing about you being the photographer is that there’s no one to take these kinds of pictures for us.”

Toni couldn’t help the smile that broke out on her face. “Baby, I’m here to inform you that you are going to be marrying an excellent photographer who prepares for these kinds of things.” She pulled away from Cheryl and went to her camera, stopping the time-lapse and then bringing the camera to Cheryl.

They clicked through all of the photos it had taken, of Toni down on her knee, Cheryl getting the ring slid on her finger, them holding each other’s hands, Cheryl reaching into her pocket, Cheryl holding the box open in front of Toni, and then their embrace. They weren’t perfect pictures, but it was still documentation of one of the happiest times of Toni’s life, so she was happy with them. And judging by the tears escaping Cheryl’s eyes, so was she.

“They are beautiful, TT,” Cheryl whispered.

“You’re beautiful.”

“I can’t believe I’m going to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“I can,” Toni told her fiancée, “and I am so excited for it.”

“Me too, TT.”

They slipped inside after that, setting Toni’s camera down with their suitcases on the floor and falling into bed, Toni climbing on top of Cheryl. They shared one last night of pleasure under the stars of Italy, and they could feel the start of their future coming upon them. Toni could see their wedding, with all of their friends coming together to celebrate. She could already picture them sitting at a little table at the top of the Eiffel Tower, sipping champagne and looking out at the hedge trees and tiny people below them, walking across the bridges of the Seine River, seeing the Louvre and Notre Dame.

Beyond that, she didn’t know what exactly life would have in store for them, but Toni Topaz had never been surer about anything than she was about marrying Cheryl Blossom. It came from the how safe and comfortable she felt around her. It came from how happy she felt just being in the vicinity of the redhead. It came from all of the ways Cheryl made her feel, and how she could get used to this incredible life with Cheryl, but she could never get used to how beautiful she was, to the butterflies that came to her stomach when she saw her, to how Cheryl would surprise her with homemade breakfast or couples massages or a bubble bath, to how thoughtful Cheryl always was. There were so many little things that Toni could never get used to, but it was for that very reason that Toni _knew_ that she would spend the rest of her life with Cheryl Blossom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SAPPY ENDING! Oh my goodness guys, it's over :( I can't believe the response I got to this series, you all have been overwhelmingly sweet and supportive and I am so glad that you enjoyed this lil series! I love/hate finishing stories, in this moment I'm really sad that I'll be missing probably quite a few update days while I figure out what to write next. I'm sorry about that in advance <3
> 
> In the meantime, please feel free to follow me on Twitter - I have CHANGED my Twitter handle for the first time EVER after 8 years lmao! @ToriWrtsStories is my new handle! You'll be able to recognize me now! I still have BrittzandTana, if you go there you'll be pointed in the right direction, don't worry haha. But yes, follow me on Twitter, @ me whenever, DM me to chat, or just stalk me! Haha, I want to keep engaging with everyone while I'm brainstorming for my next story.
> 
> Again, thank you all so much for your support, I hope you all have a lovely week! I hope everyone has a great and safe Halloween this coming Saturday, and I hope to see you guys sooner rather than later with a new story <3

**Author's Note:**

> Hey friends! Hope you're loving the story! There's more where it came from, so if you're new to my page, feel free to check out my other Choni stories! You can also find me on Twitter @BrittzandTana, feel free to tweet at me or DM me anytime, I love chatting <3 Also, I try to answer all comments on my chapters if I can, so feel free to leave any feedback at any time!
> 
> I so appreciate you taking some time out of your day to be here, reading my story <3 Thank you for your time, and I sincerely hope you're enjoying!


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